The reform of the EMU governance: Where do we stand?

The foundations of the outpost of the European Union, its Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), have seriously been shaken by the first stress test of its (short) history, the global economic and financial crisis exploded in 2008. There is now general agreement that reforms of the institutional architecture of the EMU are necessary, aimed at fostering further integration on the grounds of economic policy and governance. Behind this general agreement, however, there are sharp divergences of views and agendas. The aim of this paper is to provide the reader with a broad overview of the "state of the art" in the debate about the EMU reform, presenting the main alternative views, the major issues at stake, and the prospects of reform. At the turn of the year there was a spell of optimism that 2018 would have been the year of the reform of the EMU. Alas, optimism is fading away.