Book Review: John Theodore, Jonathan Theodore and Dimitrios Syrrakos, The European Union and the Eurozone Under Stress: Challenges and Solutions for Repairing Faultlines in the European Project

Published date01 January 2019
DOI10.1177/0020881719827095
Date01 January 2019
Subject MatterBook Reviews
70 Book Reviews
for a change. Dreze applies economics, philosophy and practical experiences to
reignite the whole range of social policy in India.
Anil K Kanungo
Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management (LBSIM)
New Delhi
India
E-mail: anilkanungo@hotmail.com
John Theodore, Jonathan Theodore and Dimitrios Syrrakos, The
European Union and the Eurozone Under Stress: Challenges and Solutions
for Repairing Faultlines in the European Project. London: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2017, 256 pp., €119.99.
DOI: 10.1177/0020881719827095
The European Union (EU) was considered ‘an island of stability’ by the world and
was an inspiration for many other regional projects. In the last one decade, however,
it has become vulnerable to multiple crises that shook its economic, political and
social structures. John Theodore and others have tried to explain this phenomenon.
The authors first provide basis to the book questioning whether ‘the creation of
the Euro was the crucial factor that provoked the EU’s perils? Or is it simply
reflective of deeper institutional fault lines, economic issues and social and poli-
tics ills?’ (p. 2). They describe the pattern of events and causes of Eurozone crisis,
from the Maastricht Convergence criteria to current circumstances and later ana-
lyse the loopholes and challenges in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
Instead of blaming the national governments for the crisis, the authors suggest
that blame lies in the wider context of the growth of the fiscal and political institu-
tions of the EU like ‘the origin of the EMU debt problem … interpretation of the
60% debt criterion of the Maastricht Treaty’ (p. 16). The book also explores the
basic debate between ‘monetarists’ and ‘economists’ led by France and Germany,
respectively within the EU, whether economic integration is a necessary precon-
dition for a successful monetary union. It cannot also be denied that establishment
of Euro as single currency without corresponding backing of fiscal integration
and political union, where the European Central Bank (ECB) manages the mon-
etary policy of whole EU, but the member countries’ governments continue to
determine national fiscal policies that presents a stark contradiction in policy
paths at the national and European levels. This led to many economic problems of
its kind in Europe within the setup of global financial crisis.
Second, the authors argue that migration crisis is the one engulfing not only the
Eurozone but also the basic foundation of the EU itself by invoking opposition to
its basic principle—‘freedom of movement’, fanning Euroscepticism, expansion
of populism and fear of threat of international terrorism. The book provides a
historical account of intra Europe immigration showing successive phases.
This ranges from the post war free movement rationale with the treaty of Rome;
expansion of this right from workers to citizens with the European Court of Justice
judgements; ‘common European citizenship’ by Maastricht treaty; final culmination

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