Financial crises
- Global Financial Crisis (Photo: vishalmishra.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/fina)
Financial crises
In 2008 a financial crises hit the whole world. It started with bankruptcies in the banking sector in the USA and spread soon to all countries with falling and directly negative growth and raising unemployment as a consequence.
EU countries reacted with different stimulus packages for € 200 billion. An analysis of the packages show that only 1.3 % of the stimulus money have been earmarked for green investments. A bigger effort were shown in support of the banks where EU states used € 279 billion in mainly bailouts.
The European Commission has proposed different directives e.g. to review bank capital requirements and establish a “Bank Union”. Rules can be adopted with qualified majority in the Council of Ministers. The Bank Union is decided for those who wish to participate.
The European Parliament has no co-decision in this area but can put forward amendments under the so-called cooperation-procedure.
The Lisbon Treaty has introduced the qualified majority voting among Eurozone members for greater parts of the economic policies, see Article 136 and 137 TFEU.
