Beyond banking: What the financial crisis means for the EU

The world is in the midst of a financial crisis which will have far-reaching implications for the EU – not just for the region's immediate economic outlook, but also for the future of the euro, financial regulation, economic reform and global governance. The crisis will also impact the EU's ambitions to tackle climate change as well as its relations with the US, Russia and China. This policy brief examines how the financial crisis will affect the politics and economics of the EU. It argues that the EU will emerge relatively unscathed from the current crisis only if its governments can successfully co-ordinate their policies, reduce dangerous economic imbalances and resist populist impulses.