Capital accumulation is regulated at various scales by institutions that crystallize the historical sedimentation of balance of power between classes and fractions of capital. During recent decades, this regulation has become increasingly spatially fragmented as a result of the co-construction of corporate globalization and transnational networks of public governance. To what extent is the European scale is relevant from this Regulationist point of view? This panel considers this issue by exploring the changing geographies of European economic policies and capital’s structuration.

Belfrage looks at the institutional margins of the European Union. His contribution is focused on EU-related socioeconomic dynamics within member states of the European Economic Area, but outside the Eurozone. Paul’s paper addresses this frontier of European regulation through a study of migrant labour dynamics in Germany and the UK. This comparison is particularly relevant because favouring labour mobility within the Eurozone has been perceived as a key dimension of the success of the EMU. One could thus expect significant divergence between labour mobility patterns between members and non-members of the euro. Regan’s paper examines the broader issue of the institutional divergence within the EMU, emphasizing the challenges, shortcomings and hybridization processes resulting from the resilience of capitalist varieties within the Eurozone. Finally, Durand and Auvray deal directly with the issue of the relevance of the European level from the point of view of capital organization while looking at the evolution of ownership and board members’ interlocking networks since the early nineties.