Unit One. Macro-dimensions of the EU economy

Step Two: the monetary Union (the Euro)

A brief history of the Euro, its function as a reserve currency and the recent (and current) policies of the European Central Bank (ECB) will provide you with an important dimension of the economic policy making of the EU, its economic climate and impact on the global economy.

A general knowledge of the pre-cursors and the history of the Euro will be given, in order to get a glimpse of contemporary challenges of the EU monetary policies.

One of the means for that impact is the purchasing power of the EU and its country-jurisdictions.

Key economic notions: Optimal currency areas (OCA), ECB, denationalisation of money

Sources: ECB, IMF, EUROSTAT, economic think tanks; Robert Mundell and Friedrich von Hayek