Authors Iain Begg | Gabriel Glöckler | Anke Hassel ... - The Europaeum

Chapter 1
From crisis to
opportunity: Europe’s
economic choices
Roger Liddle *
This pamphlet is about the socio-economic challenges facing Europe after
the global crisis and what political choices these entail. The global economic
crisis marks a watershed in the evolution of Europe; it demands a new socioeconomic
settlement for our times. This chapter, by way of introduction,
considers why. It asks whether the crisis has raised the urgency and profile
of key strands of EU policy like financial regulation, macro-economic
coordination, the governance of the Euro, EU budget reform and the Lisbon
strategy, but also whether they now require a re-think.
This contribution considers whether the crisis will mark a defining
moment in the process of European economic integration; whether,
on the one hand, it provides a new impetus for further integration, or,
alternatively, whether the crisis will lead to a sustained upsurge in
economic nationalism and demands for greater member state autonomy
that undermine the achievements of the Single Market. Finally, it assesses
the long-term consequences of crisis for the EU’s climate of intellectual
and policy thinking. Is the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism mortally
wounded? But will the crisis coalesce with the long-running debate about
the future of the “European social model” and strengthen its purchase as
a governing idea?
* I write here in a personal capacity. I would like to thank Simon Latham, my principal adviser at
Policy Network, for his helpful comments on and revisions to this paper.
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