The topic of the Intereconomics/CEPS conference for which this paper was written was framed as a question: convergence or divergence in the EU? I am prepared to give an unambiguous answer. That answer is yes.

Over the next couple of years, the European Union will face a difficult stage, being confronted with the eventual transition to a monetary union. In the beginning of 1997, it is less clear than ever, if and when the European Monetary Union will eventually be realized, which countries will join...

The past decade has dramatically shaped the European economic landscape. After the global financial and economic crisis of 2008/09 hit the continent, the southern European periphery exemplified by Greece experienced a strongly diverging economic development. As capital inflows from the North...

This paper argues that fiscal convergence in the Euro area has been achieved at the expenses of real divergence in unemployment, investment and at, at least temporarily, growth. Statistical and econometric analysis support the view that the current fiscal framework has addressed debt...

In this paper I discuss various notions and aspects of integration and macroeconomic convergence, namely economic and monetary integration; real and nominal convergence. The EU has offered a great deal of information about the relation between all these types of integration and macroeconomic...

This paper reports tests of hypotheses that a variety of interest rates and other measures from financial markets in countries belonging to the European Monetary Union (EMU) were converging prior to the introduction of the euro in January 1999. We expected to find convergence because of i)...