The European Union: Innovation from Crisis

Heather MacRae is Associate Professor of European Politics at the Keele Campus of York University. She is additionally Co-Director of the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, also at York University. Heather’s primary area of research are European Union policy, German politics and, more specifically, gender politics in both these constituencies. One of her recent projects has looked at the gender implications of the EU’s crisis responses. Her work has been published in a variety of scholarly journals including Journal of Common Market Studies; West European Politics;  and Social Politics.

The European Union: Innovation from Crisis
The European Union (and its predecessors) was originally created to foster economic and political stability in the post WWII era in Europe. For nearly sixty years the European institutions have accomplished this.  However, the financial crisis and specifically the Euro-crisis has led many to question whether the European structures are strong enough to withstand the pressures of the crisis. Perhaps the common currency was implemented too quickly? Perhaps it is too difficult to integrate such diverse economies? Perhaps the EU has become “too large”? This lecture will consider some of the common explanations about why the EU was unable to better respond to the Euro-crisis. In particular, it will suggest that the EU has developed innovating and far-reaching changes to better combat future crisis and to salvage the European project. We will then speculate whether the innovations generated through cooperative forms of governance in Europe have been (or will be) sufficient to re-stabilize the European continent economically and politically.  What will the EU look like in the future? Will the changes stabilize the EU and hold the member states together, or will they contribute to its demise?