This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the growing financial power of the European Union in a lively and accessible form. It examines how the budget is used, how it is managed and assesses the future prospects of the budget.
This book reveals how to create efficient institutions and coordinate policy on a transnational scale to ensure that European Union integration can best meet social needs. It offers a combined technocratic and humanist perspective on the discussion of public financial management. The state, as part of its public policy, should seek to preserve our social and environmental values, yet there are mounting imbalances in society which point to the growing role of the state in minimising them. Under such circumstances, it is worth reflecting on how new challenges could require updated, more complex formulas, to deal with crises in current times and for social and economic policy making by states and the European Union generally, which would ensure their compatibility with the world financial markets. The work offers an in-depth and unique performance analysis of European Union institutions compared to the national entities of EU Member States. It contributes to the ongoing debate on global public goods and the processes involved in managing their provision. Further, it discusses public finance management instruments, indicating their historical evolution in practice and their effectiveness measured with the Human Development Index. The author presents a proposal of how to manage global, European and national public goods across three areas: environmental protection, transnational infrastructure projects and social policy. The book analyses public financial management instruments used during the recent pandemic, making a distinction between regular and emergency instruments and assessing their effectiveness in specific economic situations. This will be of interest to researchers and students of economics and finance, as well as decision makers and practitioners from governments, international organisations and specific non-governmental organisations concerned with issues of public finance management.
A tension between (richer) contributing Member States and (poorer) recipient Member States has always characterised the history of the budget of the European Union, the politics of which has often turned fraught. This volume evaluates the prospects for major change to expenditure and the structure of the budget for the period starting in 2014.
As an introduction to the complex issue of harmonization of legal and regulatory structure of the European financial system and Islamic finance, this is a useful and welcome volume. The ideas, insights and practical issues addressed in the informed papers that compose the book should be valuable for academics and students of finance, and to those who provide legal and financial services. The book will be helpful also to European regulators who have yet to appreciate the importance of Islamic finance and its potential contribution to financial globalization as well as to European economic growth. Abbas Mirakhor, Former Executive Director, International Monetary Fund, US This timely book examines the authorization of Shari ah-compliant intermediaries as either credit institutions or as investment companies in the European Union. The contributing authors explore the key topics of this area through differing yet parallel perspectives for example, comparing economic and legal standpoints, looking at both European and national levels and considering both academic and technical approaches. The book discusses the common origin of Islamic and Western traditions in commercial and banking transactions, reviewing a period in which the Italian merchants and their organizations drove the rebirth of post-medieval society in trade and law. The editors investigate whether the Islamic banking and financial model complies with the European framework, spelling out the different experiences in single Member States (Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom). Notwithstanding the obstacles to being authorized as domestic credit institutions, they conclude that the access of Islamic intermediaries is suitable and may have positive effects on European integration, as well as increasing the competition among the stand-still operators and evoking the ethical dimension of banking and finance. The book also highlights how Islamic banking would make the industry more inclusive. This multidisciplinary book will appeal greatly to economics and legal scholars with an interest in European and international banking and financial law, as well as postgraduate students in international law and banking law. Practitioners and regulators will also find this book an invaluable resource.
This book focuses on the European Union as an important actor in international relations and international political economy. The EU negotiates international economic agreements, represents Europe in international organizations, and is a major trading bloc and currency area. To what extent and under what conditions the EU can use its considerable economic power to assert its interests in the international arena is a relevant question for students, researchers and practitioners alike. To explore this question, the textbook introduces the concept of “actorness” and presents an overview of the actorness debate and theories used to explain actorness. In addition, it includes three empirical chapters on trade, finance and climate policy that apply various concepts and theories to study European actorness in the respective policy areas.
This text analyses the economic relationship that has evolved between the European Union and East Asia, and its future prospects, especially in the wake of the financial crisis that shook East Asia.
Presenting a sweeping analysis of the legal foundations, institutions, and substantive legal issues in EU monetary integration, The EU Law of Economic and Monetary Union serves as an authoritative reference on the legal framework of European economic and monetary union. The book opens by setting out the broader contexts for the European project - historical, economic, political, and regarding the international framework. It goes on to examine the constitutional architecture of EMU; the main institutions and their legal powers; the core legal provisions of monetary and economic union; and the relationship of EMU with EU financial market and banking regulation. The concluding section analyses the current EMU crisis and the main avenues of future reform.
Europe’s financial crisis cannot be blamed on the Euro, Harold James contends in this probing exploration of the whys, whens, whos, and what-ifs of European monetary union. The current crisis goes deeper, to a series of problems that were debated but not resolved at the time of the Euro’s invention. Since the 1960s, Europeans had been looking for a way to address two conundrums simultaneously: the dollar’s privileged position in the international monetary system, and Germany’s persistent current account surpluses in Europe. The Euro was created under a politically independent central bank to meet the primary goal of price stability. But while the monetary side of union was clearly conceived, other prerequisites of stability were beyond the reach of technocratic central bankers. Issues such as fiscal rules and Europe-wide banking supervision and regulation were thoroughly discussed during planning in the late 1980s and 1990s, but remained in the hands of member states. That omission proved to be a cause of crisis decades later. Here is an account that helps readers understand the European monetary crisis in depth, by tracing behind-the-scenes negotiations using an array of sources unavailable until now, notably from the European Community’s Committee of Central Bank Governors and the Delors Committee of 1988–89, which set out the plan for how Europe could reach its goal of monetary union. As this foundational study makes clear, it was the constant friction between politicians and technocrats that shaped the Euro. And, Euro or no Euro, this clash will continue into the future.
Focusing on the three health care financing functions, collection, pooling and purchasing, as well as on coverage, this book analyses the organization of health care financing in the Member States of the European Union, discusses the principal financing reform trends of recent years, and assesses the capacity of these to help ensure fiscal sustainability.
This book looks at the 23 million registered Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that make up 98 per cent of the EU economy. Addressing the high end of SMEs in terms of new models for SME funding and financial reporting, this merged way of looking at SMEs reveals a ‘myopic’ thinking in terms of net present value and (future) cash flows generating short-termism and low risk appetite for business. This is not an accounting issue, but rather a preference toward certain financial tools. A segment of SMEs, the ones that seek new ways of funding possibilities, as well as modern technologies (MTFs listing, blockchain, ICOs, etc.) do require, even without knowing, IFRS for SMEs. This book reveals how market conditions impact the financial performance and sustainability of SMEs and also generate innovative policy interventions and financing strategies for SME integrity and efficiency. The authors frame their arguments in the context of the Capital Markets Union, looking at the Innovation Triangle, SME growth ecosystem and business models. They conclude by advocating for closing the circle of financing and financial reporting for SMEs, while considering if new financial models of financing and financial reporting are good for all the SMEs or only for some. The economy is being shaped by new models of financing and financial reporting. Read this practitioners’ view to understand the current changes and challenges.