The University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) has shortlisted ‘The Currency of Solidarity: Constitutional Transformation during the Euro Crisis’, written by dr. Vestert Borger, for its Best Book Prize.
The prize is awarded annually for the book ‘that has made the most substantial and original contribution to knowledge in the area of contemporary European Studies’.
In his book, published with Cambridge University Press, Borger examines how the currency union could undergo a constitutional transformation during the euro crisis. Operating at the intersection of law and politics, legality and power, transformation occurs when constitutions change without formal amendment. The book examines the currency union’s transformation through the lens of solidarity. It uses this lens to conceptualise the unity of the member states and to analyse how the European Council, in concert with other actors like the ECB, preserved this unity during the crisis. It then shows how this preservation fundamentally changed the euro’s set-up, notably the prohibitions on bailout monetary financing. Ultimately, the book explains why the European Court of Justice could not turn down this change when ruling on it in the landmark cases Pringle and Gauweiler.
