26. The Euro Crisis and European Integration

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This chapter examines how the European Union addressed the euro crisis that emerged in late 2009, two years after the global financial crisis. It first considers the complex relationship between the euro crisis and the global financial crisis before discussing the challenges the euro crisis has posed to the existing institutional set-up of the Economic and Monetary Union and the EU as a whole. It then asks why the euro crisis continues to raise questions about Greece's future in the euro area and the fate of the single currency more generally. A timeline of the euro crisis is provided and the main changes to the institutional framework of European economic governance to date are analysed. The chapter also explores the consequences of the euro crisis for the EU's legitimacy.