A Less Close Union? The European Union’s Search for Unity amid Crisis

The aim of this article will be two-fold. First, it will try to present a panoramic view of the EU’s response to the economic crisis. It will show that there were two closely related phases to the crisis in Europe: the first concerned with systemic risk in the banking sector and the second with the sovereign debt problems of some member states. Second, it will try to draw some lessons from the EU’s response for broader considerations about transnational forms of governance. The article will argue that the recent economic crises has raised a new set of challenges for the EU and European integration, challenges that highlight fault-lines that exist between the creation of an economic union and the lack of a consensus for the creation of the political instruments to govern it.