The Euro Crisis and the Dilemmas of Intergovernmentalism

The Lisbon Treaty has institutionalized a dual constitution, supranational in the single market’s policies and intergovernmental in (among others) economic and financial policies. The extremely complex system of economic governance set up for responding to the Euro crisis has been defined and implemented on the basis of the intergovernmental constitution of the EU. The crisis has thus represented a test for the validity of the intergovernmental constitution of the Lisbon Treaty. Although the measures adopted since 2010, consisting of legislative decisions and new intergovernmental treaties, are of an unprecedented magnitude, they have nevertheless been unable to promote effective and legitimate solutions for dealing with the financial crisis. In the context of an existential challenge, the intergovernmental approach faces a structural difficulty in solving basic dilemmas of collective action.