At the turn of the 2020s, Professor Vivien Schmidt and Professor Michael Wilkinson published two very important contributions to European integration studies.*

Michael Wilkinson’s perspective is both legal and historical and spans the 20th century to reflect on the tensions between democratic politics and economy policymaking in Europe, depicting the hollowing out of a social democratic vision of the economy and the extension of non-democratic, technocratic rule in European politics after the Second World War. Vivien Schmidt’s book chiefly focuses on the political and economic responses to the Eurozone crisis, considering the ideas and discursive dynamics that led to policies characterized by “governing by rules and ruling by numbers”, i.e. imposing austerity and structural policies reforms. Following the deleterious impact of these measures, she argues that European officials began to change economic governance incrementally, reinterpreting the rules “by stealth”. The economic situation improved, but fundamental flaws persisted, and legitimacy remained in question.

Professor Schmidt and Professor Wilkinson will thus discuss the history of European economic governance and the gradual transformation of its mechanisms, rules, and laws.  They will debate the ways in which these rules and laws have been implemented and contested and will reflect on the future of economic decision-making in the European Union.

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Date : 22 mai 2024, 16h30