Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

At a time when historical institutionalism and multilevel policy making of the EU are at critical junctures calling for implementation of austerity measures and public policy reforms all leading to grim belt-tightening, it is clear that the future of the eurozone is more likely to be decided by the real economies. Over the last four years, the transformative potential of the EU has shifted from the margins to the centre prompting an examination of the process by which it has acquired specificity and substance of its increasingly complex political structures, legislative initiatives, national and cosmopolitan forms of citizenship. Whether the eurozone will survive is dependent on the European Council’s capacity to establish transitional arrangements like integration of energy, transport, communications, and services, together with higher infrastructure investment which may impede the crisis and restore trust among its members.