Regaining Europe: An Economic Agenda for the 21st Century

The international economist Professor George Irvin argues that if the Euro is to survive, it needs to be run in a more sophisticated and flexible manner. Irvin believes that when the governing structures of the Euro were set up in the early 1990s, European governments were unduly influenced by monetarist ideas. In consequence, they set up a ‘banker’s euro’ with excessive emphasis on combating inflation. Other economic goals such as growth and employment were subordinated to this preoccupation with monetary stability. Regaining Europe clearly sets out the mistakes made in setting up the Euro and argues that many of the EU’s current political difficulties flow from these errors. It calls for national governments to reclaim European economic policy from the European Central Bank. Irvin believes that Europe’s political crisis needs both a political and economic response, with a more politically directed Eurozone leading to both economic and political success for the EU and a reversal of the stalemate created by the French and Dutch referenda.