The Post-2007 Crises and Europe's Place in the Global Economy

Abstract

What is often abbreviated to GFC included three distinct crises: the 2007-8 North Atlantic financial crisis, a 2008-9 global  economic crisis and public finance crises which became increasingly focussed on the eurozone in 2010-12. The relative  weight of emerging market economies in the global economy, which had been increasing for several decades, grew even more rapidly in 2008-11 as the economies of the USA and Europe faltered, and other open economies recovered rapidly  from the global economic crisis. This poses challenges for global economic governance, although there are constraints on  Asia being a more assertive force. For the EU the greater dangers are, first, that if EU leaders see their economies as victims of a GFC then they will fail to address their economies’ own shortcomings, and, second, that preoccupation with internal crises will distract EU leaders from rising to the challenges and opportunities associated with the evolving multipolar global economy.