Concept in Definition ABC

The concept of the Eurozone is used to refer to the group made up of all the countries that make up the European Union and which have then adopted the Euro as the common currency of exchange. This implies that the states that make up the Eurozone share and discuss common policies in all aspects and has a monetary union that involves sharing the same market, the same currency, and a politics common monetary.

The European Union (EU) is a political community that was established from the Treaty of the European Union on November 1, 1993 and whose reason for being was to achieve the integration of the European states that compose it.

The European Central Bank implements and decides the common monetary policy

The Eurosystem, made up of the central bank European and the central banks of the states that make up the Eurozone, are the authority supreme monetary policy and who establishes the monetary policy in common.

Countries that make up the Eurozone and states with agreements

When the Eurozone came into force in 1999, a few years after the formation of the EU, there were eleven states founders: Ireland, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and France. With the to run of time, more countries in the area were added and today there are 19 states that make up the Eurozone, with Slovakia, Lithuania, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia.

We must also indicate that there are countries and territories that, although they do not belong to the Eurozone, do have agreements with the EU and can then use the Euro as a currency in their regions, such is the case of the Vatican, San Marino and the Principality of Monaco, to cite the most notable examples, and of course always respecting the policies that the area imposes on the matter of currency.

Within this shared and common market, the I respect to the free movement of products, people, services, capital, all subject to a policy trade as a whole and with respect to the states that do not make up the Eurozone, or Euro Zone, as is also the call.

We must say that in recent years and as a consequence of the combination of various factors internal and external to the area, the Eurozone, has been suffering from some complications that of course had a direct impact on the consideration of the Euro, and also in the economies of the member countries, such as the Greek, one of the most affected and that by the way is news today for his crisisfinancial and institutional that reached the limit of asking for a new rescue from his colleagues in the area and anticipating the elections.

Photos: iStock - aydinynr / erhui1979