Co-operation in EU economic policy-making is underutilized

On May 13, the yearbook of Arena Idé 2009, "Scouting Europe", was released. The book is about how the development of a progressive European policy should look like. In one of the chapters Lena Westerlund, LO's chief economist and Monika Arvidsson, LO economist, writes about European economic policy. It concludes that greater coordination would increase the effectiveness of the economic policy, both for the EU as a whole as well as for individual Member States. The current economic crisis shows a clear need for enhanced ability to limit extensive variations in output and employment, as a result of instability in the financial market. To this end, the EU should pay special attention to the Member States to improve the so-called automatic stabilizers.
The yearbook of Arena Idé 2009 (ed. Boa Ruthström) can be ordered at Premiss förlag (in Swedish).