Státy jižního křídla Evropské unie v kontextu hospodářské a měnové unie

Abstract

The Aim of this Master Thesis is to evaluate the effects of the membership of the six south wing countries of the EU Economic and Monetary Union by the conducted analyses. The sub-objective is to either confirm or desprove a hypothesis whether the return to the original Greek currency Drachma would help to bail Greece out from its prolonged recession. The analyzed countries are Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Cyprus and Malta and this choice was made due to the poor economic situation common to all these coutries. The Thesis is structured into five chapters. The first chapter represents an introduction to the work. The second chapter is devoted to the theoretical bases of the Economic and Monetary Union, its history, pro-integration motives and the Optimum Currency Area. The third chapter concentrates on the economic analysis of the six south wing countries and their comparison. The fourth chapter is the analytical section and addresses the effects of the membership of the southern countries in the Economic and Monetary Union. The final fifth chapter concludes the work.