Germany as a coordinated market trendsetter at the core of European integration

Germany occupies a central position in the European Union as the leader of a pro-federalist crusade. At the same time, the gravity of its economy makes it the most salient partner in trade relations not only in the scale of Europe, but also globally. In this sense, Germany is also important as a trendsetter of the coordinated market economy model. In fact, Germany is of double importance in this process: firstly due to its capacity, it simply is the largest and therefore most important state and economy in Europe; and secondly due to its role in Brussels, where Berlin’s decision-making power is proportionally higher. In this chapter, the authors explain the political underpinnings of Germany’s position in the inner core of the European integration system, and they provide the details of the German type of coordinated market economy in order to understand the foundations of the (increasingly) dominating economic model in Europe.