Historical statistics (look good), The Fall, Roots of the crisis Mismanagement of the crisis How to get out of the mess? Can we make it? ...more

The financial crisis since 2008 has made clear that the EU’s and Eurozone’s “stability orientation” is an insufficient economic policy direction. Troubled banks which had lent excessively were saved by massive infusions of taxpayer money – which drove up government debt levels and, eventually, interest rates. Private debt became public debt, government debt redemption increased dramatically. Bank finance dried up, in spite of being flooded by 1 trillion € medium-term ECB money and nearly unlimited liquidity infusions. EU policy demanded ever stronger government budget consolidation, both from ...more

Franz Fischler, President, European Forum Alpbach, Vienna Apart from the broad discussion about the economic and public debt crisis, Europe is also facing a severe political crisis. It seems that further deepening of the European Union becomes more and more impossible and that the risk of disintegration is growing. The populist forces who try to destruct the Union with democratic methods compete with those in favour of more Europe. The root of Europe’s political crisis is the necessity and impossibility of integration (Mark Leonard). The dilemma lies in the development of common policy-ma...more

Karl Pichelmann, European Commission The EU is being mired in the most serious economic crisis since its creation. The euro area, in particular, has found itself in the middle of an almost perfect storm: (i) A vicious circle of government debt crisis, banking instabilities and weakening economic activity, each feeding each other in a dangerous feed-back loop; (ii) This downward spiral comes on top of probably long-lasting deleveraging needs of both public and private economic actors following the financial crisis of 2008/2009; (iii) But already before the crisis, the euro area ...more