Can prosperity return to the Economic and Monetary Union?

The paper focuses on the unemployment crisis within the Economic and Monetary Union, and the future prospects for employment and unemployment within the euro area. It considers the ‘structural reforms’ agenda for labour markets, and argues that, at best, that agenda would be neutral for unemployment. The ‘fiscal compact’, if it is adhered to, will reimpose austerity. The lack of concern over resolving the balance-of-payments imbalances threatens to confine many countries to high levels of unemployment.