THE IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE EUROPEAN UNION ECONOMY

The world economic crisis triggered in July 2007 as a US mortgage credit market crisis has progressively extended to many other countries and became considerably vast, antecedently unimaginable. It was caused by microeconomic reasons, as well as macroeconomic, generating the most serious threat to the world economy since the Great Depression of the '30s, although, while the European Union (EU) was sometimes regarded as a stable unit with a growing immunity to the external shocks, the current crisis revealed the vulnerability of the whole community system. Presently, the credibility of the EU is increasingly argued, especially that it had declared itself an aspirant to the top world position before the crisis. The Euro currency has also lost field to the US Dollar, and this was reflected on the commercial "flow processes and on the Direct Foreign Investment (DFI), its consequences being highly propagated at the Euro area level.