„EU Governance“ und Staateninsolvenz: Optionen jenseits der Kommissionsvorschläge / “EU Governance“ and Insolvency of Governments: Options beyond the Commission Proposals

The comprehensive package of measures proposed by the European Commission on 29 September 2010, and presented to the European Parliament provides the most comprehensive attempt to create a European "economic governance" since the introduction of the Economic and Monetary Union. In view of the shortcomings of existing legislation they aim at a wider and improved monitoring of fiscal policies but also of macroeconomic policies and structural reforms. New enforcement mechanisms for member states which act against the rules are also planned. With an eye on the very important and decisive package of the Commission which includes six legislative dossiers, this paper attempts to identify missing or superfluous and / or unusable items. Furthermore, it is checked what measures beyond these proposals out are, if at all, still missing to make the whole package of governance reforms and overall feasible. These potentially include mechanisms for crisis resolution and debt restructuring, a European Monetary Fund, Project Bonds and / or Euro-bonds. The main focus of the analysis, however, is on the European Monetary Fund, which is called the preferred method. Finally, this paper expands its focus on current events such as the sequence EU summits in 2010 and 2011, which laid the institutional foundations of the European stability mechanism. It is discussed at length whether the looming prospect of a permanent rescue mechanism (ESM) from 2013 on in conjunction with the previously- installed European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), have the potential to trigger a vicious circle of imminent further increases in interest rate differentials and rising debt in the euro zone. For this purpose, it is sketched from an “Ordnungspolitik” perspective, how a long-term response to crises indebtedness in the euro area should look like. Taking this as a starting point, the paper identifies the reasons for continuing market pressures in the euro zone and derives institutional deficiencies of the found institutional solutions for dealing with the illiquidity and the insolvency of euro area member states. The paper concludes with an outlook and provides an assessment of whether the euro zone debt crisis in their coming years will get a grip.