In the absence of a true capital-markets and banking union, the European Union will not be able to mobilize the financing it needs to support its green, digital transformation. Europeans must once again turn a crisis into an impetus for deeper integration.
BRUSSELS – Jean Monnet, an architect of the European Union, once said that European unity “will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.” The past decade and a half has provided further confirmation of Monnet’s prediction. Contrary to forecasts by many eminent economists, the EU Economic and Monetary Union survived the euro debt crisis and is still going strong, thanks to the European Stability Mechanism. The Juncker Plan helped put the European economy back on track, and Brexit, far from breaking the EU apart, drew it closer together.
BRUSSELS – Jean Monnet, an architect of the European Union, once said that European unity “will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.” The past decade and a half has provided further confirmation of Monnet’s prediction. Contrary to forecasts by many eminent economists, the EU Economic and Monetary Union survived the euro debt crisis and is still going strong, thanks to the European Stability Mechanism. The Juncker Plan helped put the European economy back on track, and Brexit, far from breaking the EU apart, drew it closer together.