José Magone, Professor of Regional and Global Governance at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, presented a chapter of his recent book: Constraining Democratic Governance in Southern Europe: From “Superficial” to “Coercive” Europeanization. Here follows the first chapter’s paragraph:
“The financial and sovereign debt crisis in the European Union had a devastating impact on southern Europe, not only economically and politically but also socially and culturally. The southern European countries had grown accustomed to a benevolent European Union (EU) that would transfer funding from the EU cohesion policy for the development of the region, no questions asked. This led to a desire on the part of elites and the local populations to perpetuate this relationship without making sufficient efforts to transform their political, economic, and social structures. The period between 2008 and 2014 did not represent a break with the past; rather, the impact of the financial and sovereign debt crisis is simply a confirmation of the ailing semi-peripheral socio-economic model of southern Europe.“
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