Introduction: Financial Markets (Re) Segmentation in the Euro Area

Abstract

The stresses caused by the sovereign debt crisis that began in 2010 in the European Union (EU) had many consequences. Arguably one of the most important of those was the partial re-fragmentation of the euro area – the common EU currency arrangement – financial markets, highly integrated from the onset of the monetary union up until the crisis. Even if this seemingly was a temporary development that affected just a subset of euro area members, and perhaps even part of the necessary ‘growing pains’ of the European common currency framework, it implied very significant and still present costs. This symposium issue will address some of the different EU experiences during this period, highlighting how diverse this ‘segmentation’ process actually was.