Enlarging the Euro Area: External Empowerment and Domestic Transformation in East Central Europe

This book seeks to offer the first in-depth and systematic analysis of the challenges of the Euro Area and the eastward enlargement of the European Union. It focuses in particular on how the prolonged process of accession to the Euro Area is affecting domestic economic policies in the accession states of east central Europe. It contributes to Europeanization studies, comparative political economy and to studies of Economic and Monetary Union. It also provides a picture of processes of domestic transformation in such countries as the three Baltic States, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania. The book brings together a range of recognized experts from across Europe and combines country and sectoral case studies with a thematic treatment. It begins by offering an 'outside-in' perspective, which situates the effects of EMU on the accession states in the wider context of the development of global economic norms. The second part focuses on an 'inside-out' analysis of how Euro Area accession affects the states of east central Europe - their policies, politics and public institutions. The final part assesses how Euro Area accession is affecting key policy sectors in east central Europe: financial market regulation, fiscal policies and welfare states and labour markets. Contributors to this volume - Kenneth Dyson, Research Professor in the School of European Studies, University of Cardiff Jim Rollo, Professor of European Economic Integration, University of Sussex Iain Begg, Visiting Professor, LSE Erik Jones, Associate Professor of European Studies, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS Bologna Center Ingo Linsenmann, Project Manager of 'NEWGOV - New Modes of Governance' at the Robert Schuman Center, European University Institute, Florence Wolfgang Wessels, Holder of the Jean Monnet Chair of Political Science, University of Cologne, Germany Magnus Feldmann, Ph.D. candidate in Political Economy and Government, Harvard University Frank Bonker, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, European University Viadrina Bela Greskovits, Professor at the Central European University, Budapest Radoslaw Zubeck, Research Fellow, University of Potsdam, Germany Dimitris Papadimitriou, Lecturer in European Politics in Government and International Politics and Philosophy, University of Manchester Piroska Nagy, Senior Banker, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Vesselin Dimitrov, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government, LSE Maarten Keune, Senior Researcher at the European Trade Union Institute, Brussels Martin Rhodes, Professor of Comparative Political Economy, Graduate School for International Studies, University of Denver, Colarado.