A Europe Apart: History and Politics of European Monetary Integration

This book combines history and political analysis of monetary integration in the European Union (EU) and discusses the main consequences of the euro on both member states' domestic politics and the EU's institutions and policies. The book is structured in three parts. In part I, historical analysis demonstrates that monetary instability and the need for international coordination in currency affairs emerged before political integration became an option. This suggests that monetary and political integration are convergent processes instead of two interconnected components of the wider European integration. Besides, the history of European monetary integration shows that many policies proposed today to face the euro and European crises had been discussed and tested in the past and that results were strictly connected to the specific conditions of the moment.

Such a policy analysis-oriented approach to monetary history permits discussing with a different and innovative perspective the actual problems of monetary integration and the unmasking of misleading views of European integration widely diffused in the political debate since the end of the 2000s. Part II and part III discuss the political dimension of the European Economic and Monetary Union's (EMU) problems and the impact on member states' domestic politics. These sections consider themes such as EU institutional transformation, the new EU governance model that emerged due to the crisis, the problematic relationship between European integration and national democracy, and, finally, the role of monetary integration and opposition to the euro in feeding the growing electoral consensus in favour of populist parties. A conclusive chapter summarises the main results of this long-term analysis and answers some research questions anticipated in this book's introduction about the real nature and consequences of monetary integration.