Abstract (in inglese)
The technocracy in place of democracy: macroeconomic imbalance procedure and national reforms of EU member states, a comparative analysis
The paper highlights how, since the introduction of the euro as single currency, there have been significant trade imbalances in the balance of payments of the EU Member States. This is the reasons why the current structure of the European Economic and Monetary Union, increasingly characterized by competitive dynamics, has not been able to cope effectively with the effects of the global financial and economic crisis that broke out in the USA in 2008. In this regard, it will be observed that weaker member States have been forced to adopt policies of internal wage deflation and weakening of the protection of the rights recognized to workers. However these reforms are inconsistent with the value and centrality of the work as recognized by national constitutional charters. The procedure for macroeconomic imbalances, provided for by EU Regulations 1174/2011 and 1176/2011, was established with the aim of monitoring not only the trend of the deficit and public debt but also the imbalances relating to the private sector in Member States. However, certain thresholds of the indicators used for the scoreboard of this procedure show a clear underlying asymmetry. It follows that, by considering debts and credits symmetrically, the procedure ends up attributing the greatest efforts at macroeconomic correction to the debtor Member States. This asymmetry therefore seems to contrast to the principle of equality among the Member States of the Union.