EIRP Proceedings, Vol 5 (2010)

Abstract

The current crisis has shown that an economic integration through a political and monetary approach is wrong. It seems to be more appropriate a social and economic approach, meaning both a better preparedness of the new countries joining the euro area and more flexibility of the economic structures of the old members of the euro zone, in order to make the more "harmonious" the way of the monetary area operation. For that purpose, this article has made an analysis of the imbalances management issue in the euro
area in order to provide a few theoretical solutions for a better functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), based on the observation of developments in the euro area countries. This paper enriches the economic literature, but also it is relying on the research workings made by the authors in the field of European integration. The originality of this article arises from the extremely topical issue examined and its way of approach, but also from the conclusions outlined.