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A legal study has analysed economic governance in the European Union

4/10/19

Research by a lecturer from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) has analysed the problems posed by economic governance in the European Union (EU) today. According to the results of the study, the 2008 economic crisis meant a turning point in terms of the credibility of the economic governance system of the EU.

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This research, conducted by Antonio Estella, Professor from the UC3M Department of Public State Law, has analysed governance from a legal perspective, as well as from an economic point of view.

“The whole system is based on trying to give credibility to the structure of economic governance set up in the EU for that purpose. The law tries, at least theoretically, to support the system’s credibility. The logic that prevails is this: the law’s job is to give credibility to the whole construction of European economic governance”, explains lecturer Estella, who has recently published these research results in the book “Legal Foundations of EU Economic Governance” (Cambridge University Press).

Among the possible measures to be taken, the following have been proposed: an extension of the European Central Bank mandate, according to the Federal Reserve’s model, the creation of a fiscal union in Europe, or the integration of automatic stabilisers in the European budget, among other proposals.  

The research also points out the problems posed by the regulatory framework that was adopted during the 2008 economic crisis, as it is a set of measures that were “implemented late and did not provide effective solutions in the medium and long term”.

Furthermore, the study also suggests incorporating more quantitative-type analysis in the legal field: “Research should be carried out paying more attention to data and figures”, comments the lecturer, who stresses the need to educate new law researchers in this kind of methodology, in order for law to earn more scientific and social significance as a science.

This research has been conducted as part of the 2016 call from the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity for R+D projects from the National Programme for Fostering Excellence in Scientific and Technical Research, under the title “The European Union in the context of the new generation treaties: from institutional reform to social protection”. The main researcher on this project is lecturer Julio González García, from the Law Faculty of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Bibliographic reference: Estella, A. (2018). Legal Foundations of EU Economic Governance (Law in Context). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316493243

Versión en chino (Chinese version)