Despite the success of policymakers and the European Central Bank in calming down financial markets since the summer of 2012, European leaders are still facing formidable challenges in making the single currency work in a complex environment. This book starts with a review of the necessary elements of a currency union and highlights the reasons why the system has run into its present troubles. It points to important policy recommendations to be drawn from a structural analysis of the currency union, achievements and failures of the currency union and ways to improve fiscal sustainability and arrive at stable macroeconomic performance for the union. It highlights the importance and the effectiveness of structural reforms that have to accompany fiscal consolidation and discusses the appropriate tools of crisis management and why a restructuring of the Eurozone is not the right step. Based on these considerations, a long-term target picture for the Eurozone as a part of the EU is outlined, providing a valuable contribution to a hopefully intense public debate in the coming years.

Michael Heise is Chief Economist and Head of Corporate Development at Allianz SE, where he advises the board on economic and strategic issues. He is responsible for the analysis and forecasts of the German and the international economy, and for financial markets and risk analysis. Heise studied and graduated from Cologne University and is teaching as a honorary professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt-am-Main. Before joining the Allianz Group, Heise was Secretary General of the German Council of Economic Experts, Chief Economist and Head of Research at DZ Bank.