Unmaking neoliberal Europe: Capitalist crisis and the search for alternatives

The f.irst part of this article situates the Euro-crisis in the larger context of the world economic crisis 2008/9 and then looks at the imbalances between creditor and debtor countries within the Euro-zone. These imbalances predate the introduction of the Euro, but sharpened massively since the start of European Monetary Union. These imbalances are the economic core of the Euro-crisis. The second part of the article looks at economic policies and argues that the austerity measures prescribed by the EU Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) deepened the economic crisis and led to the outbreak of an already looming crisis of legitimacy in the Euro-zone and the EU at large. This latter crisis fosters economic nationalism and thus impedes any kind of EU-level response to the Euro-crisis.