The Commission's ambition in the Economic and Monetary Union 2014-19

By the time the Juncker Commission started its term, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has already been through a series of far-reaching governance reforms such as the establishment of the Banking Union and the European Stability Mechanism. This chapter explains the Juncker Commission’s ambition in an area in which it had to invent an interest for further reform, not only the reform solutions themselves. Three policy episodes were chosen in order to find answers to questions posed by the hypotheses on the focus and level of the Commission’s ambition. These are: Flexibility in the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP); further EU Financial integration; and the revamp of the European Stability Mechanism and the euro area governance. The findings strongly suggest that the Commission was overall highly ambitious as well as focused on a wide area of governance reform solutions, going beyond the concept of ever-closer Union. The Commission did not shy away from acting politically, the SGP reform shows this, as well as the Banking Union proposals that would involve ominous, according to some, North-South transfers. Interestingly, there was also a case in which the Commission did seek a more traditional expansion of its roles, and that was the highly ambitious euro governance area proposal. However, this proposal was quick to fail and it might serve as a warning to future Presidents. The findings regarding the level of ambition also suggest a combination of high and moderated ambition, which implies both that the Juncker Commission was not willing to be in the back seat, and that it knew how to be a strategic player when that was deemed needed.