The Development of International Economic and Monetary Cooperation in Europe

Abstract Since the end of the World War II, Europe has gone a long way on the path of a new era of socio-economic integration, continually battling and overcoming the political and economic fragmentation of earlier eras and less developed economies. The various difficulties and interruptions of the process involved, the European integration, since the 1952 European Coal and Steel Community, ranged from an initial small group to a large community comprising most European countries, the gradual removal of market barriers leading to the introduction of a customs union to the single market. Furthermore, the creation of Economic and Monetary Union and the adoption of the common currency have become the culmination of the whole process of economic integration, since the euro is used daily by 338.6 million Europeans in 19 EU member states. The aim of our research article is to closely analyze the development of the economic and monetary integration of Europe, since we believe that the single currency project represents a great success for the European Union as the result of long-term efforts on currency and economy stability, progress and economic growth.