The Eurozone crisis in perspective: causes & implications

Abstract

The eurozone crisis, apart from revealing serious institutional weaknesses in the structural design of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), has also highlighted the limits of the EU and its member-states to act effi ciently, swiftly, and comprehensively to address the problems at hand. A number of vicious feedback eff ects that the crisis fuelled resulted in unwelcome political and economic developments spreading beyond the euro area. The objective of this paper is to shed some light on the causes and the ways of addressing the crisis in the euro area. Against this background, the diverse correlated implications of the euro area crisis for the EU member-states, for the EU institutions, and possibly for the future of the EU itself are discussed.