The Five Presidents’ Report: An Assessment of the Measures Proposed to Complete Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union

Abstract

The Five Presidents’ Report presents a range of actions to complete Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union. This article examines whether the Five Presidents’ Report will lead to significant beneficial reforms, having regard to the European sovereign debt crisis and the legal framework of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The article discusses the background to the production of the Five Presidents’ Report, including how preceding reports responded to the European sovereign debt crisis. The proposals to create a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS), European Fiscal Board (EFB) and a Eurozone Treasury are focussed upon in this article. The article concludes that the measures proposed in the report do not go far enough towards establishing financial stability in the Eurozone. A key criticism is that counter-cyclical policy has not been the focus of the report’s recommendations on fiscal matters.