Challenges for economic policy coordination within European Monetary Union - Andrew J. Hughes Hallett

The launch of European Monetary Union (EMU) marked the
beginning of a new era, and its establishment has proved an impressive
success at the technical, legal, and procedural level. After all, EMU
has accelerated economic and political integration in the European
Union and tied the economies of the Member States closer together.
However, the performance of the euro, high unemployment rates, uneven
output and investment growth, and the issue of structural reforms that
have yet to be tackled have raised questions about the performance of
EMU in practice.

There is a general consensus on the justification for economic policy
coordination. The existing literature on economic policy coordination,
however, seems far from able to provide robust conclusions about how
to organize the necessary interaction of institutions and policies.
Therefore, there seems to be a case for re-examining the subject under
the new framework set by EMU.

The objective of such a reassessment is to enhance the understanding
of what type of coordination and what institutional setting for policy
coordination can be expected to be most favorable. Challenges
for Economic Policy Coordination within European Monetary
Union provides an intellectually stimulating contribution to the
ongoing debate.