1) Gabriel Glöckler, Marion Salines: "Banking Union: an ‘accidental’ institutional revolution?"
While the institutional evolution of the EU in response to the crisis so far had been characterised by path-dependent incremental change, the envisaged next steps towards a banking union seem to imply a new quality of institutional change. This paper examines the factors that mark the “tipping point” when the forces of inertia and institutional stability were undermined to such an extent that a new path of institutional development became possible.The institutional dynamics underlying the move towards banking union thus point to the single supervisory mechanism as an almost accidental by-product of a policy response to market pressures.
2) Demos Ioannou, Mícheál O’Keeffe, Marion Salines: "Accountability for financial sector supervision in EMU"
Under the proposed supervisory framework substantial new powers will be bestowed upon the ECB. A new design of appropriate accountability structures in a multi-level framework of supervision must be developed, where some tasks are being centralised at European level while others remain at national level. The paper will examine the legislative outcome against best practice as outlined by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and against existing practices across the EU and other major economies.
3) Johannes Lindner, Marion Salines, Marta Wieczorek: "The ECB as a supranational institution: archetype or outlier?"
Though being a technocratic independent institution, the ECB has become increasingly involved in policy areas outside monetary policy in a narrow sense. This paper assesses whether the ECB can be considered as a supranational institution in the neofunctionalist sense by ‘testing’ its preferences for supranational solutions in the field of economic and financial governance. It also investigates the underlying drivers for the ECB’s preferences notably by analysing various sets of motivations and the internal dynamics of preference formation.
4) Wouter Coussens:"The IMF in a post-Westphalian world – the European challenge"
The emergence of regional integration projects entailed a challenge to the Fund’s country-based paradigm. This challenge became acute during the crisis, when the IMF found it difficult to square its traditional way of designing programs with the realities of a multi-level governance system of the EU. The paper will assess to what extent the crisis will necessitate more fundamental changes to IMF policies as well as its representation and membership.
