European solidarity

About the paper

In this paper, the authors have attempted to explore the key aspects of the issue of European solidarity and its implications for the people and the economies, especially of the Eurozone.

The paper starts with a brief look at the European project and places the Euro within the context of European integration before going on to recount of the divergent opinions on the issue of bail outs at the planning stage of the Euro. The authors looked at how the final decision taken was used and abused by all Eurozone members at their convenience. The paper looks at what went wrong, and using a set of graphs, provides quantitative assessment of the trends and current situation on key economic indicators including indebtedness, cost of borrowing and growth of wages in some selected countries.

The authors consider the issue of solidarity both from social and economic perspectives looking at the EU’s economic policies and institutional architecture. Under this heading, it looks at the fiscal and monetary policies and also considers the impact of some external economies such as that of China on Europe.

The paper further considers the need for a new institutional approach which better defines a central budget and fiscal authority with more transparence, credibility and accountability. Considering how much the current crisis has touched the lives of so many Europeans, the paper looks at what the views of the people are on European solidarity and the Euro.

In their concluding words, the authors noted that the Europeans leaders mismanaged the economies and that there are shortcomings in their policies and actions aimed at addressing the issue.

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About the authors

Edward OJO is a member of the Editorial Board of Read-Online.Org, a member of the Schengen European Policy Think-Tank and a senior socio-economic researcher in Luxembourg.

José A PONCELA is a member of the Editorial Board of Read-Online.Org; former General Director of Budgets, Economic Planning and European Funds at the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, and a researcher  at CEET and teacher of Macroeconomics.