Is the Euro still a success story? An Asian interpretation of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis

Since outbreak of the sovereign debt crisis in several member states of the Eurozone in 2010, the Euro as a success story was suddenly thrown into doubt. In Asia, more and more scholars and policy analysts, a majority of whom had not focused their study on the EU or Euro before the crisis, have criticized the monetary integration in the Eurozone, put into doubt the value of European integration as a whole, and reiterate their pessimistic theses about the future of the European economy. This article represents a rebuttal to this criticism, arguing that the common currency is truly in difficulty but not in an impasse. A return to a success story of the Euro is still probable, if European leaders and their citizens could reestablish a balancing model between the financial discipline and economic growth in the EU, to which a general and in-depth debate over the future of European integration is indispensable. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013