The Greek referendum offers an opportunity to challenge the EU’s preoccupation with the ‘politics of emergency’

Following months of discussions, Greece missed the deadline for a 1.5 billion euro payment to the IMF on 30 June. Jonathan White assesses what the Greek debt crisis says about the wider process of European integration. He writes that EU decision-making has come to be shaped by a form of ‘emergency politics’ since the financial crisis, with the principles of representative democracy becoming marginalised by executive power. He notes that the Greek government now appears to be pioneering its own form of unconventional politics, but crucially one that is being pursued with a democratic mandate.