Stefan Eich’s The Currency of Politics offers us a new way of looking at the EU’s sustainable finance trend, one that allows us to see how the ‘greening’ financial transactions creates “green money” and thus intertwines with questions of justice and democracy. In this contribution I explore how The Currency of Politics can help us understand the significance and the constitutional implications of the transformation of the euro into the ‘currency of the green transition’ as it has been referred to by Eurogroup’s President in 2021. I show how the three trends of EU green bond issuance, granular sustainable finance regulation and the progressive greening of monetary policy are moulding the euro in a political sense as the ‘currency of the green transition’ as much as the legal tender. Euro currency becomes in this sense ‘a governance project’ for the sustainable transition. This perspective offers multiple points of engagement with the themes of Stefan Eich’s important book. For example, the claim of privatisation of money creation must be qualified to reflect on the implications of the granular way in which EU law defines what green money is. At the same time, while a ‘green currency’ creates spaces for engagement and new forms of organising a polity, it still remains largely removed from ordinary citizens as ‘technocratic’ rather than ‘democratic’ self-government.

To understand the structural dynamics of the current eurozone crisis, it is necessary to examine the longstanding internal contradictions that the system has inherited from its inception under the Maastricht Treaty and the neoliberal strategy which has governed its evolution from the first experiments in economic and monetary union in the 1970s. A brief narrative of the evolution of the European Monetary Union yields some insights into its peculiar institutional design. More specifically, the article examines the dangerously self-reinforcing logic between speculative bond markets and cascading, deflationary policies of austerity imposed on those countries encountering severe debt crises. This examination reveals the fragile foundations upon which the eurozone was constructed.

The gastrointestinal helminth parasites of 170 common wallaroos or euros, Osphranter robustus (Gould), collected from all mainland states in which the species occurs as well as the Northern Territory, are presented, including previously published data. A total of 65 species of helminths were encountered, including four species of anoplocephalid cestodes found in the bile ducts and small intestine, and 61 species of strongylid nematodes, all but two of which occurring in the stomach, and with the remainder occurring in the terminal ileum, caecum and colon. Among the mainland subspecies of O. robustus, 52 species of helminths were encountered in O. r. robustus, compared with 30 species in O. r. woodwardi and 35 species in O. r. erubescens. Of the parasite species encountered, only 17 were specific to O. robustus, the remaining being shared with sympatric host species. Host-specific species or species occurring in O. robustus at a high prevalence can be classified as follows: widely distributed; restricted to northern Australia; restricted to the northern wallaroo, O. r. woodwardi; found only in the euro, O. r. erubescens; found essentially along the eastern coast of Australia, primarily in O. r. robustus; and species with highly limited regional distributions. The data currently available suggest that the acquisition of a significant number of parasites is due to co-grazing with other macropodids, while subspeciation in wallaroos as well as climatic variables may have influenced the diversification of the parasite fauna.

The euro crisis brought back a widening gap in prosperity between the eurozone’s core and periphery members, but also revealed a divergence in the strength of its national democracies. This article examines the amplified tension between progressively uprooted national markets governed by a supranational technocracy and nationally organized democratic politics in the eurozone’s periphery. Building on Dani Rodrik’s globalization ‘trilemma’, this article explains the weakening of national democratic institutions in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy since 2008. While the periphery states were forced to choose monetary integration at the expense of both democracy and sovereignty, this trade-off was mostly absent in the core. The eurozone’s policy solutions to the crisis did not allow for any democratic input, were implemented through opaque and often-undemocratic throughput processes, and resulted in deteriorating output. The article concludes that the EU crisis response made euro membership in the periphery less compatible with national democratic principles.

This paper forms notes for discussions about the European single currency at the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries. The author assumes (and hopes) that the single currency will start on time in 1999, with most of the Member States of the European Union included. The key dates are 1 January 1999, when the exchange rates between currencies will become irrevocably locked and become conversion rates, and 2002, when euro notes and coins will be introduced, and the retail banking sector will convert to euros. The advantages of a single currency are potentially very great; the costs are also considerable. Governments of Member States will no longer be able to get a competitive advantage by devaluing their currency, or be able to choose an inflation rate that is different from that of the E.U. as a whole. The key document is the Maastricht Treaty, and the conversion criteria included therein are discussed. The author concludes that, if governments choose to interpret the criteria leniently, all countries, except possibly Greece, will be included in 1999, with Greece joining a year or two later. Some of the practical considerations for actuaries, including life insurance, general insurance, pensions, banking and investment are mentioned. The paper is not comprehensive, and is a personal contribution to stimulate discussion.

Both the EU- and the EC-Treaties refer in prominent places to the establishment of economic and monetary union (Articles 2 EU and EC). This union is mentioned as one of the principal means of achieving the Union's and the Community's economic and social objectives. Such a prominent place is not allotted it in the Constitution. In its effort to separate the basic provisions from the other provisions in the treaties, the Convention decided to retain only the European Union's objectives in the actual constitutional part. The concrete activities pertaining to the economic and monetary union, as well as its ‘guiding principles’ of stable prices, sound public finances and monetary conditions and a sustainable balance of payments were relegated to Part III that deals with the Union's policies.

This article examines the euro area corporate bond market, in particular its development since the introduction of the euro. This market, that is to say, debt securities issued by non-financial corporations, non-monetary financial corporations and monetary financial institutions, is economically important, as it contributes to the allocation of funds to their most profitable uses. The euro area corporate bond market has grown rapidly since the introduction of the euro. Empirical analysis using regression techniques suggests that this growth can be explained by developments in economic activity, the costs of issuance and M&A-related activity. The latter reflects financing needs related to corporate restructuring, which in turn appears to be triggered partly by the introduction of the euro. The results also suggest that the introduction of the single currency had a direct and permanent effect on debt securities issued by non-monetary financial corporations. However, the use of corporate bonds at the euro area level is not uniform across countries. Country-specific factors continue to matter, despite the fact that financial markets are gradually becoming more integrated. To reap the full benefits of integration, public authorities and market practitioners are implementing a number of EU initiatives.