Cathrine Holst discusses the European crisis based on a keynote speech held by Giandomenico Majone at RECON’s concluding conference in Oslo. He held that there are only two ways out of the crisis: deeper European integration or a downscaling to a more limited economic cooperation between sovereign nation states. Holst questions Majone’s view that the latter is a more probable outcome, and points to research findings from RECON which contradict the ‘no demos’ thesis.
Media coverage
Christopher Lord argues that a reformed monetary union must include a larger role for the European Parliament.
Interview with Prof. David Mayes (University of Auckland) in Norwegian daily Dagsavisen. Mayes claims that the underlying problem is the lack of economic growth, whichis needed in all EU member states in order to pay their debts. He argues that a stronger political union is not necessary, but a certain trust must be established that the countries in trouble will take a larger responsibility for their own finances.
In an interview with Norwegian online economic journal e24.no, Prof. David Mayes (University of Auckland) argues that the Euro project was properly constructed, but that the big countries made two important blunders. First, the criteria that a country’s debt could not exceed 60 per cent of its GDP were not properly followed up. Second, Germany and France started to operate with budget deficits, which exceeded the limits in the stability pact from 2000, which led the European Commission to stop its work with establishing sanctioning authorities.
Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre held the keynote speech at RECON’s outreach seminar 'Europe’s democratic challenge’ in Oslo on 24 November 2011. The conference was attended by several Norwegian media, some of which reported from the event.
An article in Forskning.no relates research within the RECON project to the current situation in Europe. After a period of increased democratization, the EU has become less democratic under the present crisis, RECON's coordinator Erik O. Eriksen claims. As part of an integrated law community, Greece would have to break its own law as well as EU law if the country were to exit the EU. This would lead to increased destabilization.
The eurozone crisis is yet again a painful reminder of how challenging it is to reconcile democracy and capitalism when the political institutions are lacking. It is now the self-appointed troika - the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank - that decides the Greeks’ future living conditions, Prof. Erik O. Eriksen argues in this op-ed in EUobserver.
Prof. Erik O. Eriksen, RECON's scientific coordinator, has commented on the Euro crisis in several Norwegian media in the latest months.
Two Spanish newspapers commented on the RECON workshop The European Rescue of the European Union: The Socio-Economic Malaise of Integration, which was organised by Agustín José Menéndez (ULEON) in León in September 2011.
Waltraud Schelkle's editorial in Intereconomics 'The Euro area after another crisis summit: ignore the elephant in the room at your peril' is mentioned in an article of the Financial Times, where Tony Barber asks if the effect of the Euro crisis will be that eurozone nations choose to go down the road of further fiscal integration.
Simen Ekern, Brussels correspondent for Norwegian Dagbladet, comments on the book European Stories (eds Lacroix/Nicolaïdis), which was presented at a Spinelli Debate in the European Parliament on 15 June 2011.
RECON's findings and the outreach conference 'Where is European democracy heading?', which was held in Brussels on 19 May 2011, is presented in the weekly newsletter of the Mission of Norway to the EU.
Norwegian online newspaper ABC Nyheter comments on RECON's findings and the outreach conference 'Where is European democracy heading?', which was held in Brussels on 19 May 2011.
'Revolusjon: Hva er det som gjør demokratiet så attraktivt at borgere ofrer liv og lemmer for å kjempe det frem?'
Article on RECON in Apollon, a research magazine at the University of Oslo (1/2011).
'Å demontere EU ville føre til endringer i Europa av nesten revolusjonære proporsjoner.'
'Flere av landene i Eurosonen er i dyp økonomisk krise. Men hva betyr pengekrisen for EUs videre fremtid?'
Interview with Paweł Kubicki and Marcin Galent in Gazeta Krakowska, the largest regional daily newspaper in Kraków, Poland.
Interview with Cathrine Holst (ARENA) in Apollon, a research magazine at the University of Oslo, where she also talks about her research at ARENA and the EU's progressive role in promoting gender equality.
Interview with Paweł Kubicki in Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's second largest daily newspaper.
Two Spanish newspapers commented on the seminar Cuando los ciudadanos dicen "no", which was held in León on 17 September 2008.
Maria Heller, Director of the Institute of Sociology at the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, presents RECON in the March-edition of EU Fókusz, a newsletter from the European Union Grants and Innovation Centre.
Columnist Thomas Ferenczi comments on the RECON workshop European Stories - the intellectual debates on Europe in national contexts, which was organised by Justine Lacroix (ULB) in Brussels late May.
Demokratiet som forsvant, Erik O. Eriksen , Dagbladet, 11 February 2008
Kan Slovenia redde Vest-Balkan?, Erik Ryen, Bergens Tidende, 14 January 2008