Present and future of the European Union and EMU

The financial and economic crisis, associated with the longest and deepest recession since the end of World War II, broke out in the United States during the second half of 2007, and then spread to the entire world economy; Europe was hit in 2008. Data on industrial production and GDP documented a rapid and large fall in economic activity. In spite of some encouraging signs of an inversion of the economic cycle during the second half of 2009 and the first half of 2010, the strength of the recovery was moderate and considerably varying among EuroArea countries. The decidedly poor performance, mainly in the Euro area, of indicators related to growth appears to support the view that some European features might have affected the outright economic decline more than what is observed in other countries. The symposium will discuss the fiscal policies and economic growth of European countries and whether and to what extent institutional reforms did emerge compared to the United States and the United Kingdom.