The EU’s Reformed Institutional Framework and the Way Forward

Christiane Kment () and Isabella Lindner ()
Additional contact information
Christiane Kment: Oesterreichische Nationalbank, European Affairs and International Financial Organizations Division
Isabella Lindner: Oesterreichische Nationalbank, European Affairs and International Financial Organizations Division

Monetary Policy & the Economy, 2014, issue 1, 12-32

Abstract: This article focuses on measures taken in 2012 and 2013 to reform the EU’s institutional framework. These measures, which were largely based on provisions included in the Treaty of Lisbon, have increased the role of the European Parliament and of the national parliaments. Stronger parliamentary involvement and interinstitutional agreements on democratic accountability seem to counter the theory of a lack of democratic legitimacy; legitimacy would appear to be jeopardized more severely by an emerging “social deficit.” At the same time, governance has become more complex, as the Community method of decision making was mixed with intergovernmental decision making in crisis management and prevention measures, and as variable membership patterns have evolved. By establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) for euro area countries and a facility for providing balance of payments assistance to non-euro area countries, the EU has set up permanent financial crisis management mechanisms. Fiscal governance reforms replicate the precrisis structure, and – as before – success depends on the commitment of Member States to implement reform measures. With more detailed reporting requirements and more ambitious timelines in the European Semester, economic governance has become more extensive. Yet European and Monetary Union (EMU) remains incomplete: By establishing a banking union, the EU Member States have transferred national sovereignty to the supranational level, but the reforms stop short of a fiscal union, for which the Treaty of Lisbon would need to be changed.

Keywords: EU economic governance reform; EMU; sixpack; twopack; fiscal compact; TSCG; banking union; SSM; SRM; SRF; European Stability Mechanism (ESM); outright monetary transactions (OMT); intergovernmental agreements (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F15 F55 K0 N24 N44 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.oenb.at/dam/jcr:67210c4f-c492-428d-b4a ... 014_q1_analyses2.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:onb:oenbmp:y:2014:i:1:b:2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Documentation Management and Communications Services, Otto-Wagner Platz 3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria

Access Statistics for this article

Monetary Policy & the Economy is currently edited by Gerhard Fenz and Maria Teresa Valderrama

More articles in Monetary Policy & the Economy from Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank) P.O. Box 61, A-1011 Vienna, Austria. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Rita Glaser-Schwarz ().