The European Union in the grip of accumulated governance crises: the euro, the reform efforts, and the public-support dynamics

Abstract

This paper considers how the 2008 banking crisis and the subsequent financial and economic crises – more specifically, the sovereign debt crisis of several European Union (EU) member states and the crisis of the euro, the common currency of the euro zone – affect the political geography of the EU. This is done in the light of contradictory expectations drawn from main approaches of EU politics: intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. We consider responses from above (governance practices) and responses from below (public opinion) and conclude that in both cases different approaches highlight different aspects of the process and are largely complementary.