Towards a more integrated, symmetric and viable EMU

The capacity of the EMU system to successfully tackle an economic crisis has been questioned during the recent financial and economic turmoil. The basic economic structure and competitiveness in the eurozone has developed in an undesirable direction. The number of member countries of the EMU, as well as the basic construction of the EMU system, must again be the focus of the discussion. After a study of the current accounts of 12 EMU countries follows a discussion in terms of the Barro–Gordon model about the costs of the EMU, i.e., to bring together the preferences of the political authorities in different EMU countries and the optimal combination of inflation and employment in the eurozone to determine the sought equilibrium of the model. If economic structural differences are increasing, they must be compensated by increased integration. It is feasible, but only for the economically viable EMU countries.