Synopses & Reviews
This volume is the fourth instalment of the "
Report on the State of the European Union" collection. It proposes that if the EU does not want to be ruled by crisis any longer, it must invest in a sustainable, political, economic, social and environmental future.
In the now half century of European integration, testifying to its talent for survival, progress has often been made through crises. Political Europe was actually born out of a "crisis": World War II. The main argument of this book is that if Europe does not want to be ruled by crisis any longer, it must turn this elusive and ever-threatening "crisis" into a chosen and meaningful transition. Specific chapters examine issues of democracy and economic governance, tax, budget and public debt, inequality between and within European countries and energy and environmental issues.
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the European Union, making it essential reading for students, researchers, professionals and policy-makers.
About the Author
Jacques Le Cacheux is Professor of Economics at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour. He also teaches economics at Sciences Po (Paris) and Stanford University Program in Paris. He has been an economist at the Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (OFCE) for over three decades. Co-author and co-editor of many papers and volumes with Jean-Paul Fitoussi, including the series of Reports on the state of the European Union. He was one of the rapporteurs of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission.
Éloi Laurent is Senior Economist at OFCE/Sciences Po. A former aide in the French Parliament and for the French Prime Minister, his current research agenda focuses on environmental sustainability and welfare economics. A former visiting scholar at Columbia University and Harvard University Center for European Studies, he currently teaches at Stanford University and Sciences Po. He was an invited Professor at the University of Montréal and Harvard University.
Table of Contents
Introduction: From Crisis to Sustainability
PART I: DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE
1. The EU and the Paradox of Democracy
2. The State of Economic Governance
PART II: PUBLIC FINANCE
3. Taxes
4. The EU Budget
5. Debt
PART III: INEQUALITY
7. Inequality Between Countries
6. Inequality Within Countries
PART IV: ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
8. The EU as a Global Ecological Leader
9. Energy and Climate Policy on the Road to Paris 2015
10. The EU "beyond GDP"