The course offers a deep understanding of the recent innovations in the European Economic governance as well as in the European monetary and fiscal policies. The first part of the course aims at providing basic knowledge on key European institutions (including the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and EMU-area regulations more in general) and their joint functioning in the dynamics of economic policy-making. The analytical core of the course is devoted to the Euro area evolution after the international financial crisis (2007-'09). However, references are also made to the first decade of the Euro (2000s) and the European economic and monetary Union since its origins. Finally, the last part of the course turns to the ‘Next Generation EU’ and post-Covid-19 crisis scenarios (including the potential reform of the Eurozone, the Stability and Growth Pact, debates on strategic autonomy, etc.), and discusses some future avenues in these areas.

The expected knowledge transmission is the supply of a set of tools sufficient to analyze the working of the European economic and institutional system. The main learning outcomes include, but are not limited to: - On a theoretical level, developing a solid understanding of the Eurozone, its main actors, the regulatory framework, how decisions are taken, existing tensions between macro-economic pressures and the (power-relevant) roles of consolidated interests, and not least the EU’s ‘plasticity’ vis à vis potential crises and challenges; - On a practical level, formulating analyses and critical assessments of crisis situations, interpreting different positions on economic and growth patterns in the Eurozone since the early 2000s to our days; - Cooperating with colleagues and collectively brainstorming on such topics, for instance by learning to work in a group environment (in small groups or in a broader class exercise setting) or preparing presentations; - Being able to read and understand formal economic documents published by European institutions; - Critically evaluating the content of international newspaper articles devoted to a European economic problem, or interpreting statistics on key socio-economic trends; - Interacting with the Professors upon receiving feedback on exercises and presentations, and/or engaging in relevant discussions with them or their colleagues; - Following the academic debate on the main European perspectives.

The content of the course will focus on the following topics: - The ‘making’ of the Euro and first decade; (1990-2007) - The status quo ex-ante: the ‘great moderation’, the liberalization of trade and finance, the rise of central bank independence; - Optimal Currency Area theory, fiscal governance, Stability and Growth Pact; - The European Central Bank, with a primer on debt and economic and financial crises more generally; - The 2007-8 financial crisis and immediate response; - Unfolding contagion in Europe: the drivers of the sovereign debt crisis (including the‘doom-loop’ between the sovereign debt crisis and the crisis of the European banking sector); - Austerity and its consequences; the consequent evolution in the European economic governance and the launch of European aid programs; - A deep dive in crisis management in Greece and Ireland: paradigmatic drivers and response; the long European recession and the risk of deflation; - Taming the crisis: the Fiscal Compact, Banking Union, MES; the ‘whatever it takes’ and the launch of the OMT; the evolution of fiscal policy and QE - European welfare states from crisis to crisis: from the Great Recession to the post-pandemic response (SURE, NGEU). - The new EU economic, industrial and (geo)political activism; future scenarios for the European Union.

The topics addressed in this course will be covered by a list of ad-hoc readings and academic articles (varying from class to class). However, the main parts of the course are covered by: (1) Sandbu, M. (2017). Europe's Orphan: The future of the Euro and the politics of debt. Princeton University Press. (2) De Grauwe, P. (2020). Economics of the monetary union. Oxford University Press. Useful integrations are offered by: (3) sets of slides that refer to the various topics of the course. The slides, referring to a given lesson, will be made available to students in advance (at least, two days before this lesson). Core readings for each week are sufficient for the preparation of final exam. Students could largely improve their learning process, if they strengthened their political economic background on European problems by reading the following book before the starting of the course: Moschella, M., Quaglia, L., & Spendzharova, A. (2023). European Political Economy: Theoretical Approaches and Policy Issues. Oxford University Press.

The organization of the course is based on five different teaching methods: - the transmission of analytical tools on the fundamental content of the weekly themes (core lecture session); - the discussion of these issues and the utilization of the tools learned (groupwork session); - the presentation of acquired knowledge in class in groups or individually (presentation session); - the reference and appraisal of documents written by policy makers (all three sessions); - The analysis of newspaper articles, primary statistical evidence and blogposts on these issues (all three sessions).

For regularly attending students, the assessment method takes into account four variables: (A) Active participation in class; (B) Small presentations and group discussions (groupwork); (C) Presentations on the core readings and research papers; (D) Formal final (written) exam. The grade breakdown will be as follows: - 70% given by the sum of (A), (B) and (C) – with the largest weight assigned to the Friday presentation (60%) and a smaller component assigned to course participation and presentations in the groupwork session (10%) - 30% on the final exam (D). Following LUISS’ regulations, attending students can participate only to ONE final examination session among the two scheduled at the end of the semester. They can sit in the second examination session only if absent at the first one. If students cannot participate to activities planned during the semester, under special circumstances it is possible to apply for the status of non-attending students (the application must be made at the beginning of the semester). International students (e.g. Erasmus, Double Degree) are automatically considered as non-attending when courses take place during the period abroad. Only in such circumstances (i.e. after having formally obtained, or being entitled to a non-attending student status), students can take the final exam without attending the course. In that case, the final grade will be just based on a written exam (100%) covering the main contents of the course. Retake sessions: In the first retake session, attending students that did not participate in any previous examination session can decide either to maintain the grade obtained during the semester (worth 70% of the total) or to be assessed as non-attending students. For any further retake sessions, students will be considered and assessed as non-attending (hence taking the written exam worth 100% of the grade).

This is an eligible course. Hence, it is difficult to conceive that students can decide to select the European economic problems as the main topic of their thesis. Moreover, the first- degree dissertation is a thesis centered on specific problems; and the European economic specific problems are difficult to handle. In any case, from a formal point of view, we do not have any restriction for the assignment of the thesis but two: - to have passed this exam with a good grade (> 25/30); - to have an adequate economic background to address the topic selected.