OPTIMAL CURRENCY AREAS AND CHANGES OF DOMINANT ECONOMIC LOGIC. CASE STUDY: EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION

Under the conditions in which all mankind and especially the entire world economy was undermined by the emergence and spread of the global economic crisis, it was not possible for the European continent to get away from it, the European Union especially. As you know, some of the Member countries of the European Union have chosen to share the same currency, the Euro, constituting the European Monetary Union. The present study wants to be a research on the criteria that have to be satisfied by an optimal currency area, but above all how many of these criteria are met by the Euro area at present. Of all these criteria we chose to study applied to Euro area labour mobility criteria, the degree of openness of the economy, production diversification, fiscal transfers, and fulfilling the conditions of wage flexibility and integration of capital markets. Results of the analysis carried out shows that only some of the criteria are met. The advent of the Euro has helped to advance the process of financial integration and the increasing openness of economies, but has not changed the labour mobility and wage flexibility.