Chapter 2 gives scholars and students across disciplines, but also policymakers, trade unionists, and social movement activists, a clear account of the arcane new economic governance (NEG) regime that European Union leaders adopted after 2008. The chapter avoids jargonistic academic language as well as the Euro-speak of the EU’s economic governance documents when describing the setup and operation of the NEG regime. This is important if one wants to understand its internal contradictions and change the operation and policy direction of the EU’s NEG regime.

Chapter 1 offers an in-depth overview of the many substantive, procedural and institutional changes introduced by the various reforms adopted in the field of economic and fiscal policy in the aftermath of the Eurozone crisis and the COVID-19 crisis. Reform packages such as the Six-Pack, the Two-Pack, the Fiscal Compact or the adoption of the recovery plan are closely investigated. Over the past decade, each and every aspect of the economic pillar of the EMU was substantially reshaped, changing the face of economic governance in the Eurozone. On the one hand, EU economic governance saw its scope dramatically expand, to become a comprehensive governance system that impacts most aspects of national public finances and macroeconomic policy and absorbs significant portions of social, employment, cohesion and other redistributive policies. On the other hand, recent reforms have also triggered a substantial intensification of the means and methods of EU action with regard to economic policy, significantly exacerbating the level of EU presence in the field of economic and fiscal policy and consolidating its grip over national policy spaces.