Europe’s growing resilience to crises

Exploring EU’s four major crises with Mr Klaus Regling

The European Union (EU), and its Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) are a unique entity – with diverse sovereign countries united in select common policies. Given its setup, crisis management in Europe is always complex. In the last 15 years, Europe has been put to the test with four major crises – the global (subprime) financial crisis, the euro crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the current economic and political fallout of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Each of these crises was different in nature, and commanded varied policy responses from the EU. What was common, however, is the integration strengthening that has emerged from each crisis, together with the creation of new institutions that are meant to make the EU more resilient.

In a public lecture on 19 May 2022 at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), chaired by Prof Danny Quah, Dean and Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics (LKYSPP), Mr Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism, shared his insights into the four major crises and how the EU worked towards resolving each of them. He also discusses the way forward for European integration.

When the European Union was created in 1952, starting as the European Coal and Steel Community, and later the European Economic Community, it was initially focused on the integration of countries that were former enemies during two World Wars.

Today, the EU is made up of 27 member states – 19 of which share a single Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and single currency. These 19 states are home to 340 million people with a further 175 million people outside of the EU whose countries’ currencies are linked to the euro.

Read the full article here.

Article originally published on https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/gia.