Our new “Fiscal Union”: What Is It All About?

Last week’s EU summit has sent a shock wave through the political world in Europe: Not only seemed the idea of a split in the Union, with UK turning it’s back to the rest of Europe, suddenly to become a reality. But also the much-trumpeted “fiscal union” among the 17 Euro members plus up to nine of the rest raised a lot of anxious questions: What will the legal quality of that new thing be? How will it relate to the existing Union? Will the European Commission and the European Parliament have a say in it? What are we to make of Merkozy’s repeated insinuations of a new “intergovernmental” or “union” method instead of the accustomed community method of legal integration? What is it doing to democracy in Europe?

We have asked a number of respected scholars in the field of European law and policy for their thoughts and observations. We will publish their responses in the next days and weeks.…