The crisis can also be seen as a balance of payments crisis of the affected countries, brought about by excessive public and private debt, combined with a lack of competitiveness.
As we know now, the existing regulatory framework for monetary union, the “rules” of the European economic and monetary union, did not prevent these undesirable developments – the fiscal framework was not implemented consistently, and was watered down, and the macroeconomic imbalances in individual member states, which are reflected  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  in the high level of private sector debt, were not treated with due attention or were completely ignored.