While the budget affords limited leeway for these measures today, it is possible in any event to plan their implementation over a longer time horizon. Building Europe: progress and uncertainties The present conditions and prospects of the individual countries of the euro area are closely linked to those of the European construction. For years the area has withstood formidable tensions.
The effects of the global financial crisis had not yet been absorbed when the sovereign debt crisis erupted. Triggered by weaknesses in individual countries, that crisis was fuelled by the incompleteness of the Economic and Monetary Union.