The Eurogroup in the Shadow of the (European) Rule of Law
The Eurogroup and the EMU have long been object of inquiry in EU scholarship. However, relevant contributions have hardly addressed in depth the role of the Eurogroup and its legal semi-invisibility and relative “lawlessness” within the structural transformation of European economic governance. Based on institutionalist approaches typical of Italian and Spanish public law scholarship, the project aims to fill this gap, with the goal of strengthening its rule of law credentials, as set out in Art. 2 TEU, and, more generally, the legitimacy of EU’s economic governance. It will proceed in three phases. First, it will analyse the role of the Eurogroup within the still suboptimal EU common currency area, with a specific focus on the structural transformations triggered by the 2008 crisis. Second, it will advance an analytical approach different from those dominating current scholarly discourses, namely an institutionalist/material approach highlighting the capacity of sociopolitical institutions—however established—to produce norms that effectively organise social relationships. Third, it will reconstruct existing law and the most recent case law of the ECJ in the light of such approach, showing how it can productively be used to bring the Eurogroup out from its relative legal invisibility and strengthen its accountability.
