Financial crises
In 2008 a financial crises hit the whole world. It started with bankruptcies in the banking sector in the USA and spread soon to all countries with falling and directly negative growth and raising unemployment as a consequence.
EU countries reacted with different stimulus packages for € 200 billions. An analysis of the packages show that only 1.3 % of the stimulus money have been earmarked for green investments. A bigger effort were shown in support of the banks where EU states used € 279 billions in mainly bailouts.
The European Commission has proposed different directives e.g to review bank capital requirements. They can be adopted with qualified majority in the Council of Ministers. The EU has decided on a Banking Union and a Euro Pact with stricter rules for member states and banks.
The Lisbon Treaty has introduced the ordinarye legisdlative procedure for greater parts of the economic policies in Art. 136 and 137 TFEU.