Quit Kicking the Can Down the Road : A Spanish View of EMU Reforms

The euro was expected to make Europe stronger and more integrated. So far, it has not succeeded in this endeavour. The EMU's original design underplayed the importance of banking, fiscal and political union and failed to provide the right incentives to promote the structural reforms needed to maintain Europe's high standard of living in an ever more globalised and competitive world.The recent crisis was a wake-up call. It exposed serious shortcomings in the design of the euro and led to substantial reforms, including the creation of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the launch of a Banking Union with a single rulebook, a Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and a Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), and the strengthening of the economic governance framework