Publication

This commentary discusses the impact of the 2008 financial crisis and following economic recession on European citizens and EU politics. The authors argue that the crisis aggravated the already existing gaps between citizens and European institutions, and northern and southern European countries, as well as reversed the previously converging trends on poverty and social exclusion amongst member states. As such, the authors identify the economic recession as a serious challenge to the consolidation of the EU as a union of citizens and the European project as a whole.