In the course of the crisis, the level of sovereign debt increased greatly in the Eurozone. Affected in particular were states such as Greece and Portugal, which already had high levels of debt prior to the crisis. However, the crisis also impacted countries such as Spain and Ireland, which were hardly indebted beforehand, but paid large amounts for the stabilisation of their financial systems.

The European debt crisis has shown that difficulties in one euro-area country can spread to the entire currency union. What strategies are being discussed for reducing sovereign debt? The new Europa Briefing presents three possible scenarios for the future handling of government debt in the EU.

In the publication series “Europa Briefing”, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Jacques Delors Institut – Berlin cover key topics of European politics and present possible scenarios: What is the problem? What might happen next? And what can politics do now?

All the publications of the joint European project with the Jacques Delors Institut are available at www.strengthentheeuro.eu