The Eurozone Crisis

The Eurozone is ‘the economic region formed by those member countries of the European Union that have adopted the euro.’ Democracy can be defined as ‘a system of government in which all the people of a state…are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives to a parliament’. The Eurozone crisis, in simplistic terms refers to the idea that a few European countries are in debt and incapable of paying their dues. Countries like Greece have been in the spotlight most recently due to their huge deficit of 340 billion Euros that they have borrowed over the past five years. In order to repay the debt, Greece has had to make many cuts, consequently leaving many impoverished. However, Greece lacked …show more content…
This had meant that Greece was no longer able to refinance their own debts and needed a way out. Consequently, other European Union members no longer want Greece to be a member of the European Union. This is because they have to help Greece with their debt repayments and if a country such as Greece falls, which could bring down the rest of the euro, and this could also bring down the rest of the world economy, as they are financially interlinked. In other words, the banks within the Eurozone have lent out so much to the countries that are in debt, that if a country that is indebted leaves the euro, it could possibly cause the downfall of the Eurozone banks, and ultimately even the worlds banking system could be brought down along with …show more content…
The EU’s democratic principles appear to have a significant function, however it has always been put forward that they have a democratic deficit operating and has always had a low-level of the citizen’s input. One of the ways that could be attempted to help regulate the problems caused by the Eurozone crisis is the financial assistance to member-states astride some structural adjustment. A problem that had arisen regarding the democratic process was the fact that the approach that was offered did not provide any other alternatives. A vast majority of the measures that were introduced, such as the permanent financial stability mechanism, in which had then enhanced even further the concept of policy conditionality which then linked it to the core national policies. These national policies are tax levels, healthcare policies and budget setting. It is now possible for the Euro group to review the European Union’s national member-states’ budgets and to also ask them to revise the budgets. There is a growing influence of international technocratic actors in placing policies on budgets and the overall framework of budgets. This requires Eurozone member-states to introduce a deficit ceiling, which could be constitutionally