In the meantime, a great many problems have been tackled and reforms initiated. If the financial system or individual euro area countries were to once again find themselves in turmoil, we would be better prepared to deal with this today than we were back then. After 20 years, the euro is all grown up.
However, it hasn’t yet put all of its growing pains behind it. In other words, monetary union hasn’t yet been made crisis-proof once and for all. In order to be forearmed in the long run, euro area countries first need to be proactive by making their economies competitive.