European economic governance: what is it, where are we and where do we go?

Since the Amsterdam revision of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union has accepted responsibility for macroeconomic well-being in general and the employment performance in particular. However, as the EU does not have available any supranational macroeconomic institutions of governance except the European Central Bank and is not endowed with sufficient financial resources to pursue its own and independent fiscal policy, European economic governance cannot be anything else than networking or coordination. This article will take a closer look at what 'governance' may mean at the EU level, its theoretical conceptualisation, developments and prospects.