European Union bailouts and credibility : the constitutional dimension Articles uri icon

publication date

  • December 2016

start page

  • 507

end page

  • 540

issue

  • 3

volume

  • 22

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1354-3725

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1875-8207

abstract

  • Since the Great Recession started, there have been eight bailouts to European Union (EU)
    Member States, which cost the EU around EUR 380 billion. The aim of this article is to analyse
    the legal-constitutional issues that this major bailing out operation has brought about. The
    conclusion is that the EU was not only ill-prepared from an economic perspective to make bailouts;
    it was also ill-prepared from a constitutional perspective, above all if one understands law, as this
    article does, as a credibility device. Absent further reforms and clarifications, the current EU system
    of bailout governance may be prone to generate important credibility problems in the future.

subjects

  • Law