Prospects for the system reform of the eurozone up to 2025 : institutional and legal aspects

The primary research objective of this paper is to take stock of system reform in the Eurozone in the period 2011-2021 and to provide an outlook on its development until 2025. The author formulates two research hypotheses. The first is based on the assumption that the two fundamental premises of system reform in the euro area were: (1) the institutional and legal deficiencies of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) resulting from the Maastricht Treaty of 7 February 1992, and (2) the Eurozone debt crisis (2010-2018), which exposed the systemic weaknesses of the eurozone and therefore required a reform of its system. Following this, the author formulates three research questions: First, to what extent was the system reform of the Eurozone an instrument of the European Union to combat the debt crisis; Second, which system changes have failed to materialise in the EMU and the Eurozone so far and why? Thirdly, what is the significance of the decision of the Member States of the European Union of 14 December 2020 on the communitarisation of debt as a basis for the functioning of the European Union’s instrument for the reconstruction of the next generation EU with the resources allocated to overcome the economic and social effects of the pandemic crisis for the further fate of system reform? The first part of the thesis deals with the institutional and legal deficits of the EMU resulting from the Maastricht Treaty. The second part of the chapter is devoted to the process of implementing the system reform of the Eurozone in the period 2011-2021 and the prospects for the creation of three new structures in the EMU by 2025, i.e. the Financial Union, the Fiscal Union and the Economic Union.