Integracja finansowa w Europie po wprowadzeniu euro. Przegląd literatury

The introduction of the euro was one of the most important events in the process of European integration, especially in the financial sector. However, next to its many advantages, the joint currency and single monetary policy increased the probability of property bubbles in the EU low income countries. The excessive speculations, which resulted in the burst of the US property bubble, the financial crisis, as well as the fiscal problems and the recession in Europe in 2010, uncovered the weaknesses of the financial integration and the inability of the European financial system to absorb large shocks. The financial losses, and the risk that some banks and moreover, even some euro zone member countries might become insolvent, underlined the existence of large systemic risks. As a result, cross border lending declined, the European credit market was affected negatively and the uncertainty concerning the stability of the euro increased. The second phase of the crisis in Europe was a starting point to develop some new international solutions to those problems aimed at increasing the stability of the European financial system. Our paper presents an overview of the literature on the advancement of financial integration in the euro zone, as well as in other regions including Poland. The concluding part of this review summarizes also the results of own research of its authors.