Can Prosperity Be a Catalyst for Integration?
More and more, in every segment of society, it has become clearer that the dimensions of societal progress must be better understood. As growth and development proved to be less relevant to measure societal progress, experts and decision-makers consider that another concept could be more relevant, namely economic prosperity. In the equation of the new concept, in addition to the economic dimension of development, the social one becomes essential. Reducing discrepancies across member states has always been one of the objectives of integration, but the evolution of each economy made it more difficult for the European entity to reach this goal. Another assumption is that European citizens consider that the European project started to undergo certain changes, a “social deficit”, so it is imperative to define the elements of the new social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union. More