I analyse the nature of the design failures of the Eurozone. I argue first that the endogenous dynamics of booms and busts that are endemic in capitalism continued to work at the national level in the Eurozone and that the monetary union in no way disciplined these into a union-wide dynamics. On the contrary the monetary union probably exacerbated these national booms and busts. Second, the existing stabilizers that existed at the national level prior to the start of the union were stripped away from the member-states without being transposed at the monetary union level. This left the member states “naked” and fragile, unable to deal with the coming national disturbances. I study the way these failures can be overcome. This leads me to stress the role of the ECB as a lender of last resort and the need to make macroeconomic policies more symmetric so as to avoid a deflationary bias in the Eurozone. I conclude with some thoughts on political unification.

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Design Failures in the Eurozone: Can They Be Fixed?

Part I. Introduction: 1. Introduction 2. What is health law? 3. What is European Union health law? Part II. EU Internal Health Law: The Individual Focus: 4. Consumerism: the moving patient 5. Consumerism: the moving health product or service 6. Consumerism: the moving health care professional 7. Rights: health rights as human rights 8. Rights: mobile patients' rights as human rights Part III. EU Internal Health Law: The Systemic Focus: 9. Competition, solidarity, equality: health insurance 10. Competition, solidarity, equality: health institutions and professions 11. Competition, solidarity, equality: the pharmaceuticals, medical devices and medical equipment industries 12. Risk: clinical trials 13. Risk: health system products - pharmaceuticals 14. Risk: health system products - human blood, tissue and cells, organs medical devices 15. Risk: tobacco, food, alcohol Part IV. EU External Health Law: 16. The global context: institutions and instruments 17. The global context: consumerism, rights, justice and equality: human organs and access to essential medicines 18. The global context: opportunities and threats: health knowledge, communicable diseases, global food and tobacco law Part V. Conclusions: 19. Conclusion.

European Union Health Law: Themes and Implications

Excessive fiscal spending is commonly cited as a root of the current European debt crisis. This article suggests, like others, that the rise of competitiveness imbalances contributing to national imbalances in total borrowing is a better explanation for systemic differences toward Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) countries’ exposure to market speculation. We identify one driver of this divergence: a country’s capacity to limit sheltered sector wage growth, relative to wage growth in the manufacturing sector. Corporatist institutions that linked sectoral wage developments together in the surplus countries provided those with a comparative wage advantage vis-a-vis EMU’s debtor nations, which helps explain why the EMU core has emerged relatively unscathed from market speculation during the crisis despite the poor fiscal performance of some of the core countries during EMU’s early years. Using a panel regression analysis, we demonstrate that rising differentials between public and manufacturing sector wage growth, and wage-governance institutions that weakly coordinate exposed and sheltered sectors, are significantly correlated with export decline. We also find that weak-governance institutions are significantly associated with more prominent export decline inside as opposed to outside a monetary union.

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Comparative Institutional Advantage in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

The paper explores the determination of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Balkan transition economies – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. Detailed FDI inflows to Southeast Europe (SEE) are analysed to determine the main differences in the volume, timing and sectoral structure of FDI within the region and in comparison to the Central East European countries. A gravity model to all transition economies during 1990-2011 is then estimated to assess whether the factors driving FDI to the Western Balkans are different. They are found to be so; even when size of their economy, distance, institutional quality and prospects of EU membership are taken into account, Western Balkans countries receive less FDI. These issues are of high policy relevance for the Balkan economies and ought to contribute to the current debate on the ‘new growth model’.

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Foreign direct investment into transition economies: are the Balkans different?

European integration has long relied on the democratic legitimacy of its Member States without paying much attention to the increasing importance of its multilevel governing processes. At this time, however, Europe is caught in the intersection of multiple crises, all of which—Brexit as well as the euro crisis, the refugee crisis as well as the crises in Europe's relations with its Eastern and Southern ‘near abroad’—are challenging the effectiveness as well as the democratic legitimacy of government on European and national levels. These dual challenges are connected: Democratic legitimacy presupposes effective governing and problem‐solving capacity. Hence the failure of output legitimacy may undermine or even destroy the possibility of input legitimacy—a risk for which the fate of the Weimar Republic remains a most disturbing memento. At the same time, however, the lack of input legitimacy in the present European context will constrain and may ultimately destroy the effectiveness of measures based on non‐accountable supranational authority

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De‐constitutionalisation and majority rule: A democratic vision for Europe

An assessment of the balance between ‘the market’ and ‘the social’ by reference to the areas of social policy, the internal market and economic governance – Imbalance resulting from a consitutional displacement of the legislative process (EU and national) and instead decision-making by the judiciary and the executive – Proposals to address the imbalance by reinforcing the role of the EU legislative process and limiting other forms of European integration.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DFE428E839A54A14E44BD2D4CC8F0AEF/S1574019616000407a.pdf/div-class-title-the-constitutional-im-balance-between-the-market-and-the-social-in-the-european-union-div.pdf

The Constitutional (Im)balance between ‘the Market’ and ‘the Social’ in the European Union

The Bologna Process, an intergovernmental process of voluntary policy convergence towards a common higher education structure, poses several concerns from a European law perspective. The Bologna Process takes place outside the institutional framework of the EU, while there would have been legal competence to enact the content of the Bologna Declaration as a Community measure. Hence it could be argued that Member States have straddled the borders of loyal cooperation by avoiding the institutional framework of the EC with its built-in checks and balances. They have obstructed the Community in the attainment of its tasks, which stands in tense relation to Article 10 EC. Moreover, there exist several other objections against the Bologna Process, particularly in terms of democracy, transparency and efficiency. The Bologna Process resembles a deal done in a smoke-filled room, and its voluntary character combined with a lack of coordination prevents its effective implementation.

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The Bologna Process: From a European Law Perspective

The European Pillar of Social Rights is a high-profile political reaffirmation of twenty social rights and principles. Its implementation deploys the full EU governance arsenal: regulations, directives, recommendations, communications, new institutions, funding actions, and country-specific recommendations. As such, the static imagery evoked by a ‘pillar’ does not capture the true nature of the initiative, which is dynamic and fluid, wide-ranging, and permeating. An equation of the Pillar with the set of twenty rights and principles it proclaims similarly fails to capture its true significance, which lies in its programmatic nature. Several important measures have already been proposed as part of this new social action plan for Europe, some of which are close to adoption. This Article analyses the meaning of the Pillar and its potential significance, by considering its content sensu largo, and its broader context. It argues that even if the Pillar cannot address all the EU's social failings, it has put a surprising social spin on the Better Regulation Agenda that was threatening to erode the social acquis, it has rekindled the EU's relationship with the International Labour Organization and Council of Europe, and it helps rebalance the EU's output by reviving the use of the Treaty's Social Title.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/BC9A7E7D0A8CD7915B744DA745ACC242/S152888701900003Xa.pdf/div-class-title-the-european-pillar-of-social-rights-an-assessment-of-its-meaning-and-significance-div.pdf

The European Pillar of Social Rights: An Assessment of its Meaning and Significance

Under the budgetary strain of the economic crisis, many European governments have introduced spending cuts in higher education. As a consequence, universities increasingly have to rely on tuition fees and private sources of funding to sustain themselves. This development fits in with a broader tendency of treating higher education increasingly as an economic resource and commodity, which is fostered by European-level processes such as most notably the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy. Considering the fundamental importance of these issues, touching upon the core of our views on what an equitable and egalitarian society entails, it is imperative that the decisions that are being taken are democratically legitimate and that the policy makers are accountable for the measures they enact. Therefore, it is worrying that many of the most crucial and influential decisions are taken in intergovernmental contexts and implemented by means of soft law - of which the democratic legitimacy is doubtful. The Bologna Process is an intergovernmental policy forum, participation in which is voluntary and whose decisions are non-binding, suffering from all the accountability defects inherent in international policy making - magnified by its soft law character. The Lisbon/Europe 2020 Strategy does take place within the EU's institutional framework, but is an area where the EU's democratic deficit is particularly worrisome. Therefore, as this contribution shall argue, we need to consider a stronger and more democratic basis for these important policies, if we decide to pursue them. That basis is to be found in EU law.

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The Future of Higher Education in Europe: The Case for a Stronger Base in EU Law

About the Author List of Abbreviations Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Introduction: A Surprising Evolution in European Higher Education Chapter 2 The Bologna Process Chapter 3 EU Higher Education Law I: Legal Competence and Modes of Governance Chapter 4 EU Higher Education Law II: The Case Law of the ECJ Chapter 5 The EU, the Council of Europe and the Bologna Process: Common Objectives? Chapter 6 The Bologna Process from a European Law Perspective Chapter 7 Conclusions Bibliography Appendix 1 Sorbonne Joint Declaration Appendix 2 The Bologna Declaration of 19 June 1999 Table of Cases Table of Legislations Index

Sacha Garben

Papers

The Constitutional (Im)balance between ‘the Market’ and ‘the Social’ in the European Union

The Bologna Process: From a European Law Perspective

The European Pillar of Social Rights: An Assessment of its Meaning and Significance

The Future of Higher Education in Europe: The Case for a Stronger Base in EU Law

EU Higher Education Law.the Bologna Process and Harmonization by Stealth