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Does banking union exacerbate the European Union's democratic deficit? Using Scharpf's 'input' and 'output' legitimacy concepts, it is argued in this article that its design does worsen the democratic deficit. There are good reasons to limit 'input legitimacy' for politically independent institutions. 'Output legitimacy' is then even more relevant. Transparency is a key part of 'output legitimacy'. It enables actors to judge whether the regulator is acting in the public's interest and can improve their outputs. This article focuses on the banking data that the supervisors collect. Data available to the European public is evaluated and compared to America's banking union. European practices are not comparable in terms of availability or detail. An original survey of relevant officials is conducted, which results in the finding that only 11 of 28 Member States release any information on the banks they supervise. Both EU and national supervisors should provide publicly available, timely and consistent individual bank data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an analytical discussion of the adjustment to EU accession for an economy under alternative assumptions about monetary policy rules. The post-accession phase is characterized by rapid capital inflows and real exchange rate appreciation. If accession is combined with membership of the euro area and a pegged exchange rate, then the post-accession period exhibits excessive foreign borrowing, high wage inflation, an excessive stock market boom, and much too rapid growth in the non-traded sector at the expense of the exportable goods sector. Alternative monetary policies can be used to eliminate the inefficiencies of the post-accession adjustment, but some bring real costs in terms of lower growth and unemployment. We find that the best policy is one of flexible inflation targeting with some weight on exchange rate stability. In the absence of exchange rate adjustment, fiscal policy could be used, but this requires complicated time-varying expenditure taxes. While the analytical discussion emphasizes the benefits of exchange rate adjustment, a later section of the article explores some more recent arguments regarding non-traditional costs of exchange rate volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on the developments in the economies of 15 European Union Member States in 2002 and their implications for European integration. Increase in the growth of gross domestic product of most member countries; Economic implications of cuts in short-term interest rates; Changes in the fiscal and monetary policies.