Economists at the Heart of Europe?

Economists play a growing role in the shaping of public debates and policies in Europe, especially since 2010. This process relates to the rising centrality of economic institutions in times of crisis: the ECB, the Commission's DG ECOFIN, the IMF and the national (esp. German) ministries of finance constitute a (relatively) cohesive institutional coalition, in which economic expertise is of major importance, for a set of systematic causes. 
On the basis of various biographical and discursive data (like an analysis of "troika" missions in Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal), this paper seeks to shed light onthe social and political mechanisms behind this process.