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European Issue n°200

10 Fact Sheets to explain Europe and the World Economic Crisis

10 Fact Sheets to explain Europe and the World Economic Crisis
04/04/2011

Abstract :

On 24th and 25th March the European Council approved the "European Stability Mechanism" and the "Euro Plus Pact". These decisions mark the end of a long series of reforms the origin of which can be traced back to in 2007 at the start of the biggest world financial crisis in 80 years. This destabilised the entire financial system and plunged the real economy into recession. As an extension to the financial crisis a massive deterioration in public finances struck several euro area Member States quite severely and compromised the credibility of the European single currency.

Financial turbulence and the euro crisis have revealed weaknesses in European integration and also raised awareness of the need to act together. The period covering 2008-2011 showed that the European Union is a political edifice that develops as crises occur. The latter drive integration along and have triggered off a dynamic to reform which had been deemed impossible since the failure of the French and Dutch referendum on the European constitution in 2005.
These 10 explanatory sheets present a summary of the way the European Union has faced the challenges raised by the financial turbulence ongoing since 2007. They aim to facilitate the understanding of the context of the crisis which the Union is experiencing and to provide a panorama of the reforms adopted to face this. The first six address the world financial crisis and measures taken both internationally and on a European level to manage the effects and reduce the probability of its repetition in the future. Within the European Union these measures notably include the creation of a new structure for financial supervision and high legislative production in terms of financial regulation. The last four sheets focus on the crisis and the euro and the reform of the Economic and Monetary Union.

Summary



SHEET 01

The Global Finan cial and Economic Crisis in Brief

SHEET 02

Causes and Lessons Lea rned from the Crisis

SHEET 03

The Reform of the Global Finan cial Architecture

SHEET 04

Finan cial Regulation and Supervision in the Eu (I) New institutions: stepping up financial supervision in the EU

SHEET 05

Regulation and Finan cial Supervision in the EU (II) Strengthening the resilience of the financial system

SHEET 06

Regulation and Finan cial Supervision in the EU (III) Making the financial sector more transparent and more responsible

SHEET 07

From the Finan cial Crisis to the Euro Crisis

SHEET 08

Characteristics of the Countries in trouble

SHEET 09

How to Reform the Economic and Monetary Union? (I)

SHEET 10

How to Reform the Economic and Monetary Union? (II)

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Publishing Director: Pascale JOANNIN
ISSN 2402-614X
Available versions
The author
Sebastian Paulo
Graduate of Sciences Po Paris and MA "International Relations and Diplomacy of the EU" from the Collège d'Europe; he notably took part in the writing of the study "Perspectives du développement mondial 2010" by the OECD and the "Schuman Report on the State of the Union 2011".
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