Resisting in times of crisis: the implementation of European rigor plans in the Irish and Greek cases

The financial and economic crisis in the EU starting in 2008 triggered important economic difficulties for a number of member states. Amongst those, Ireland and Greece were confronted very early in this crisis with difficulties to raise money on financial markets. Financial loans were thus provided by Eurozone domestic leaders in order to insulate these countries from market's pressure and refinance their debt. Under the authority of the European Council, the European Commission, together with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), negotiated a bailout plan with both countries. The implementation of these plans, however, took two different forms in Ireland and Greece. While Ireland has completed the structural reforms linked to the bailout plan, Greece is still confronted with serious delays in complying with the demands. The aim of this chapter is to investigate the factors that led to this differentiated outcome. Based on an implementation approach, we will analyze the reasons that led to higher resistances in the Greek administration than in the Irish one towards the EU-IMF rigor plans