This political cost is precisely the visible measure of collective commitment to the single currency project, which is necessary to ensure the economic and political resilience of EMU in the future. European political parties could be a catalyst for such a debate – by organising more discussions than they do now, not along national lines, but according to social preferences.
This could also mean that social partners would need to go beyond their national remit and adopt a European perspective. Conclusion The outcome of this kind of process would certainly not be optimal from a purely economic standpoint. That is a key feature of democracy.