Does Economic Sovereignty still exist ?

In a globalised economy, economic policies –whether they are fiscal or monetary– are increasingly constrained by the international context. Crises are systemic while crisis management is almost exclusively national. Furthermore, the main mechanisms used to diffuse economic policies in order to tackle the crises are inoperative because of the level of public debt and historically low base rates. So can we talk about economic sovereignty if countries are unable to manage crisis situations?

Two responses are emerging in light of globalisation: protectionist tendencies on the one hand and regionalisation processes on the other. Regionalisation can take one of several forms, ranging from customs agreements to monetary union, the furthest developed example of which is the European Union.

This session will look at the impacts that these protectionist and regionalisation approaches have on countries’ economic sovereignty.