Impact of the Austerity Plans on State Development: a Challenge for the Member States of the European Union

In the last years, the studies on austerity and its precise link to growth has been revived following the austerity plans that are being adopted by governments throughout Europe in response to pressures of EU institutions, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Each member state of the European Union has tried to be innovative and to create new institutions, like the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism (EFSM) to overcome the consequences of the economic crisis. Unfortunately, the economic crisis is a consequence of many parallel factors which are all related to globalization, Europeanization and development, so certain austerity plans were considered inefficient and delayed due to the size of the crisis and the complexity of the interdependence systems. In this paper, my main concern consists in assessing the impact of austerity plans of some member states of the European Union and their effect on economic and social development. The attention goes up on economic adjustment programme for Greece and aims: (a) to discuss the link between the implementation of strict budgetary programs and development; (b) to analyse the conditionality of structural reforms for the assistance to be effective. From a methodological standpoint, the research relies on comprehensive and systematic search of the vast literature on European institutions' assistance, and document analysis (among others the Annual Reports, authorities' data summary, obtained by using free accession to information) and strategic documents.