Policy Brief: Past and Present of EMU Reform. Reforming the Euro Area – The Road Not (Yet) Taken
Euro area reform has been at the centre of much needed discussions throughout recent years. The euro area crisis has made it clear that significant vulnerabilities still exist in the current architecture of the European Monetary Union. This has opened an intellectual and policy debate on how to make the EMU more crisis-resilient and whether the euro area requires more risk-sharing or more market discipline to this end. Along these lines, numerous proposals have been presented by institutions and academics such as the introduction of a common fiscal policy instrument, possible reforms of the current fiscal rules, the creation of a euro area safe asset to break the sovereign-bank nexus and a common European Deposit Insurance Scheme. This policy brief summarises the discussions and policy proposals for EMU reform of recent years.