그리스 구제금융으로 시작된 유럽재정위기는 2년이 넘는 기간 동안 봉합과 재현을 거듭하며 확산되어 왔다. 각국의 재정건전화 노력과 유로존의 공동대응에도 불구하고 재정위기가 확산된 데에는 재정적자 외에도 유로존의 구조적인 문제점과 초기대응책의 미비,정치적 합의 부재 등이 원인으로 지적된다. 위기가 확산됨에 따라 유로존은 금융안전망의 설립과 재정준칙의 재정비를 통해 대응강도를 높여왔으며, 유럽중앙은행도 점차 적극적으로 시장에 개입하여 왔다. 향후 유로존이 존속하는 가운데 재정위기를 해결하기 위해서는 역내불균형 문제를 완화시킬 수 있는 정책 조율기구의 설립이 필요하며, 현재의 수준보다는 강화된 재정통합 조치가 요구될 것으로 보인다. 유로존의 재정위기는 채무위기의 성격이 짙어 완전한 해결까지에는 오랜 시간이 걸릴 것으로 예상되며, 공공부문의 긴축과 민간부문의 디레버리징을 감안할 때 유로존은 상당기간 저성장을 겪을 것으로 보인다.European debt crisis has been spread over the entire Eurozone despite of bail-out of Southern European countries. Starting from Greece, Ireland and Portugal were bailed out and since the second semester of 2011, Italy and Spain have been under pressure of debt crisis due to their soaring bond yield rate. During the early period of the crisis, the Eurozone focused on providing liquidities to Greece. However as the crisis affected other countries one after another, Eurozone's reponses have become more comprehensive, recognizing that the crisis is related to insolvency beyond liquidity crisis.
The first response to overcome the crisis was to settle a financial firewall and
bail-out fund which prevents contagion of the crisis to other countries. Particular efforts were given to provide liquidities to ailing economies. Starting from setting a temporary rescue mechanism, European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), Eurozone members increased its amount and agreed to settle a permanent mechanism, European Stability Machinism (ESM). Secondly, the EU and the Eurozone introduced new measures to strengthen the budgetary discipline. The fiscal compact, led by the German government, is the principle result for this effort. The pact introduced a number of measures to transpose budgetary discipline of EU level to individual member States with compulsory mechanism. Thirdly, responses of the ECB to the crisis have been more active and far-reaching, even breaking with its principles and precedents. The ECB intervened in large scale in sovereign bond market, as the crisis affected Italy and Spain and it provided liquidities over 1 trillion euro to European commercial banks in order to lower bond yield rate. ECB's measures contributed a lot to reducing pressure on financial market, especially in early 2012.
There is a consensus that Eurozone need strong reforms in order that the euro will survive in the future. Firstly, it will be inevitable to push for a certain level of fiscal integration to sort out the current crisis. However, this will require a high level of political compromise, as well as efforts of debt-ridden countries for structural reforms and budgetary discipline. Progress towards the fiscal integration will highly depend on political agreements between Eurozone Member States. Secondly, correcting macroeconomic imbalance between members will be a key issue in medium and long-term, because the debt crisis is regarded as a consequence of accumulated current account deficit resulting from the lack of competitiveness of some members.
Thirdly, it will be increasingly necessary to develop close coordination mechanism of economic policies between members. This mechanism will have to address not only budgetary behavior of Member States, but also comprehensive economic policies including labor market reforms and industrial policies. Political factors played strongly from the early stage of the debt crisis and the latter has an aspect of political crisis about the European integration. Major actions were slow and ill-coordinated due to lack of leadership at EU level. In historical perspective, the EU has been developed through crisis, repairing its structural problems and resolving the differences among members. These precedents provide optimistic expectation for EU and Eurozone’s institutional reform. However, given the recession in real economies and deleveraging in financial market, the Eurozone may encounter low growth period for next few years.