The bumpy road to a competitive economy – economic governance in the European Union

Over the last few years the European Union and its Member States have made a series of important decisions that imply stronger economic coordination in the EU as a whole, particularly for the euro area. The ineffectiveness of the pre-crisis govern- ance based mainly on an open method of coordination was the trigger of these chang- es. The aim of this paper is to discuss a deepening of economic integration and of po- litical coordination. The emphasis is put mostly on the matter of competitiveness. The novelty of this paper consists of linking the criticism of the “old economic governance” with recently implemented mechanisms. The elements of the new economic govern- ance correct the weaknesses of the foregoing methods, yet bring forth other obstacles. We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them Albert Einstein