The Euro at a quarter of a century: economic policy and governance. Introduction to the special issue

Abstract

This introduction frames the special issue, developed in collaboration with the EuroMemorandum Group, by situating the Euro’s twenty-five-year record against the promises that accompanied its launch. The European Commission’s “One Market, One Money” projected that monetary union would deliver price stability, efficient capital allocation driving convergence and shared prosperity. Contrary to this vision, the contributions to the special issue collectively show that the Euro, paired with its fiscal straitjacket, has instead produced stagnation, amplified crises, and solidified core-periphery structures. While the ECB proved more adaptable than its mandate suggested, its crisis-driven interventions addressed symptoms rather than structural causes. The introduction concludes by identifying two challenges that urgently require further research: decarbonization and transformed geopolitical conditions, both of which demand fiscal and industrial policy capacities that current EU governance structures obstruct. The introduction builds on three streams of critical scholarship: post-Keynesian macroeconomics, core-periphery political economy, and neo-Gramscian analyses of European integration to situate the special issue’s contributions.