![Banking union – or Potemkin village? Banking union – or Potemkin village?](https://www.cer.eu/sites/default/files/styles/spotlight/public/images/spotlight/publication/potemkin_village_lg_sl-1380269033.jpg?itok=-I9-XGW9)
Banking union – or Potemkin village?
Since mid-2012, the eurozone crisis has been in remission. The period of relative calm which has prevailed since then has not been the product of an upturn in economic fortunes: until the recent summer uptick, the eurozone had suffered six consecutive quarters of declining activity and rising unemployment (a result in part of synchronised fiscal austerity across the region as a whole).