5. Interventions by Governments

The opening part of this chapter identifies and discusses the main methods that governments employ to intervene in markets: monetary and fiscal policies and intervention in banks. The role of the Principles of Proportionality and Subsidiarity in the manner that EU intervenes in markets is appraised prior to a review of the details of its intervention by application of the three principal methods. Monetary and fiscal policies are discussed in respect to the 17 Member States comprising the Eurozone, which were the EU’s major concern after the 2007–2008 crisis, and monetary policy impacting on all 27 Member States, which relies on European Central Bank (ECB) coordination with national central banks. Fiscal discipline was regarded as more important in Eurozone countries that were subjected to introduction of a range of standard interventions in an attempt to meet specific debt-level criteria imposed by EU.