Learning to live in Euroland - The role of France and Germany

France and Germany have been the motor of European integration for half a century. During this process their economies have converged to a remarkable degree. Their present difficulties in terms of economic growth, unemployment and public debt are shown to depend largely on fallacies of macroeconomic management, rather than on the “European social model”, which they have adopted. However, European monetary union has profoundly changed the conduct of macroeconomic management in Euroland. Structural reforms alone cannot improve the economic performance in large regions of a monetary union, unless they are supported by fiscal policies determined at the European level. This opens important questions for democracy and the governance of Europe.