Macroeconomics

Monetary policy

Economic union

Sovereignty

European debt crisis

European monetary union

Economics

European integration

International trade

Corporate governance

Economic history

Keynesian economics

Economic and monetary union

Sovereign debt

Politics

Political science

Monetary economics

Economic governance

Debt

International economics

Debt crisis

Finance

European union

Currency

Political union

Journal of European Integration

This contribution discusses the two main asymmetries of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as they developed over the past two decades since the launch of the Single Currency. From the outset, EMU involved asymmetric degrees of integration in the area of 'economic' union (less centralised governance) versus 'monetary' union (more supranational governance). With the outbreak of the Sovereign Debt Crisis in 2010, the regime-shaping relevance of a second asymmetry emerged: one roughly between the member states of the Euro Area 'core' and those in the 'periphery'. Each of the two asymmetries have created a range of challenges — institutional, policy and political — that undermine the stability and sustainability of the EMU project.

Economic and Monetary Union at twenty: a stocktaking of a tumultuous second decade: introduction