A GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE MONETARY INTEGRATION PROCESS IN EUROPE AFTER EURO ADOPTION

After more than five decades since the problem of the European monetary integration has been introduced into the arena of the politic debates and after almost two decades of changes towards a viable functioning of the Euro Area, it is interesting to make a review of this process and of its main challenges. The paper tries to provide an overall image of the European monetary integration process, evaluating it from the perspective of several elements that are important for this attempt. Besides the presentation of the historical facts from the Euro adoption, the paper also presents some challenges to the process of monetary integration in Europe, on the short-term.