It is scarcely possible to overstate the impetus to competition and growth that can be given by a single large market - a phenomenon which has existed in the USA for a very long time: on the one hand, enterprises in the euro area can grow to a size that makes them globally competitive, the key words in this context being mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures.
Secondly, internal competition - within the euro area - will also increase, as it is still the case that the bulk of the individual euro area countries’ trade is with other participating countries. This trade is now domestic trade for the euro area as a whole, in which exchange rates no longer enter into the equation.