A Europe of Incentives

After months of failed short-term fixes and mounting panic, European leaders from Merkel to Cameron are now agreed that the only sustainable solution to the euro crisis is political integration. In ‘A Europe of incentives: regaining the trust of citizens and markets’ Mark Leonard and Jan Zielonka lay out how a more inclusive Europe could be achieved. The paper also suggests ways to avoid a Two-Class Europe where decision making is dominated by powerful countries, the technocracy-populism trap and continued crushing austerity.

The Scenario Debate

In ‘Four scenarios for the reinvention of Europe’, ECFR’s director Mark Leonard offers a new framework for understanding Europe's efficiency and legitimacy crises, and examines the political and legal obstacles to a solution in different member states, the new cultural divisions in Europe, and the rise of new populist forces. We are running a series of responses from prominent thinkers and academics:

Narcís Serra
"If we wish to favour economic growth in European countries we must address income redistribution."

Ivan Krastev
"it is Germany’s view of what is happening in the Union that will more dramatically affect the future of the European project than the troubles of the Greek or Spanish economies."

Charles S. Maier
"The British can imagine that their banks will suffice, the Germans their autos, but such comparative advantage can dissipate quickly. I’d as soon wager on Greek beaches."

Brigid Laffan
"as the Union intrudes more and more into domestic budgetary and public finance choices, can party politics in Europe adapt to a very different governance regime?"

Georg Sørensen
"a substantial part of the present euro crisis has less to do with European cooperation and more to do with member states that are fragile, ineffective, have serious corruption problems..."

READ ALL THE INTERVENTIONS