A different Europe

• Author: Vierasu, T. - Onofrei, G.
• Position: PhD. Student, Dept. of Marketing, Tourism and International Relations, Transilvania University of Brasov - Letterkenny Institute, Ireland
• Pages: 213-220

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Vol. 6 (55) •No. 1 - 2013

Series V: Economic Sciences

A DIFFERENT EUROPE

T. VIERAŞU

1 G. ONOFREI2

Abstract: This paper makes a theoretical analysis of the European Union,

the Eu ro Zon e and Romania’s desire to join the European single currency.

The controversies between economists r egarding the construction pr ocess of

the Monetary an d Economic Union remain large. Is it a dvisable for Romania

to adopt the Euro, given the uncerta inty clouds o ver the currency's future?

Can Romania maximize the benefits to adopting the Euro in the future? How

can the Eur ozone be refor med? What is the future of the Eur opean Union

and Euro cur rency? To a nswer these questions we ana lysed: how the

Europea n Union and the euro curr ency was formed, we analysed some

difficulties the Eur opean Union is facing at pr esent, and several very likely

scenarios a bout the future of the European Union.

Key words: Romania, the Eur opean Union, Eur o adoption, Eur opean

Monetary Union, the euro debt cr isis.

1 PhD. Student, Dept. of Marketing, Tourism and International Relations, Transilvania University of Braşov.

2 Letterkenny Institute, Ireland.

1. Introduction

The European Union is the best thing

that could have happened to the continent

since the fall of the Roman Empire.

The ideal of a united Europe was simple:

by gradually intertwining national

economies, every motive for going to war -

indeed, the sheer logistics of such an effort

-would render war impossible. Who would

lay waste to his own factories and fields?

That dream has come true. The continent

is administratively and legally one of the

strongest economic area in the world. It

suffers no internal conflicts, mass poverty

or dictatorships. So what is the problem?

Europe has reached its capacity. The

common currency is crashing, inflated into

monetary waste paper by a handful of

desperate bankers and business leaders

pumping out emergency credits.

In this paper, we analysed a book written

by Professor Philipp Bagus of Universidad

Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, called “The

Tragedy of the Euro” (2010).

The title of his book frames his

economic argument. In his book,

Professor Bagus examines two visions

about the future of the European Union:

the liberal order of free trade and free

migration, which would leave the nation-

states intact; and the statist ideal of a

centralized United States of Europe.

Starting from these visions and after we

analysed European Union’s history, we

created three likely scenarios about the

future of the EU using “scenario analysis”.

Scenario analysis is a process of

analysing possible future events by

considering alternative possible outcomes

(sometimes called "alternative worlds").

Thus, the scenario analysis, which is a

main method of projection, does not try to

show one exact picture of the future.