The objective of the study is to establish how original financial integration could be attained in southern Africa in order to attract more foreign investment and develop a financially robust and stable region in the southern part of Africa; also to deal with the challenges, risks and remedies of prospective future financial crises. Financial markets are rapidly integrating into a single global market. Developing countries of various regions are drawn into the process with little choice, and without having sound financial infrastructure and policies in place. It is against this background that countries and regions of global integration choose policies that would benefit their regional economy and avert potential economic shock. The challenges posed to countries and regions by the progressive global integration of financial markets are becoming more urgent by the day. These challenges need to be addressed more effectively, either nationally or regionally, as demonstrated by the 1998 financial turmoil in Asia. Private capital flows are becoming intra regionally concentrated, particularly in the USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Be that as it may, failure in one market is likely to have immediate and large regional repercussions. Globalisation also marginalises Africa and other Least Developed Countries (LDC), leaving them more impoverished and with greater disparities in terms of income, GDP and FDI. Regional financial integration has to be efficient and sound in order to prevent or contain currency and capital market crises in the southern African region. This study identifies macro economic challenges and risks associated with financial integration. Recommendations are made about methodologies of addressing these issues in order to realise the benefits of regional financial integration in southern Africa, which could be a building block in realising the dream of an African Monetary Union. The study contributes greatly to the debate around the most appropriate criteria that are to be met by the SADC countries, before monetary integration can become a reality. A comparison of the benchmark macro economic convergence criteria of the EU and of the African Monetary Union is done and the performance of SADC countries is assessed in terms of both sets of benchmarks. Southern African states are found to not even be at a comparable level with regard to the EU targets of 1997. The thesis is also critical to the impact of the political instability in the SADC region on prospective monetary integration. Most importantly, SADC would be at a permanent disadvantage and face a long-run depreciation of its common currency, should it continue to integrate financially at macro economic benchmark levels inferior to those of its major trading partner, the EU. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Economics / unrestricted

In conformity with the goal of the African Union to build a monetary union for the entire African continent, one of the goals of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is the formation of a monetary union with a single central bank. Towards this end certain macroeconomic convergence criteria, which are closely aligned with those used by the European Union (EU), have been set. While empirical research on whether or not SADC would benefit from the formation of a currency union has focused on the optimum currency area criteria, no reference to these criteria is made in the SADC programme. Instead, the SADC approach has been governed by a set of macroeconomic convergence criteria synonymous with those pursued by the European Monetary Union (EMU) prior to its formation. Doubts regarding the future of the EU have recently been raised as a result of debt crises in certain member states, implicitly raising questions about the adequacy of the convergence criteria that were adopted. Accordingly, this study considers the feasibility of establishing a currency union in the SADC region. The proposed convergence criteria are assessed against the theory of optimum currency areas as well as in terms of their adequacy in the light of recent EU experience. In addition, the paper provides a preliminary assessment of the fiscal sustainability of the SADC region by conducting Engle-Granger cointegration tests on the public debt and revenue series for the SADC countries under analysis. It was observed that SADC has made considerable progress towards meeting its macroeconomic convergence criteria in recent years. However, in light of the regions' heavy dependence on commodity exports coupled with recent price fluctuations in this regard, the sustainability of this progress is questioned. Furthermore, a review of the EMU experience to date highlights numerous flaws in its approach and the potential challenges the SADC region should consider in moving forward with its agenda. In essence, the study suggests that almost all the SADC member states are fiscally unprepared for monetary union formation and the recent EMU debt crisis has highlighted the importance of acquiring a state of fiscal sustainability prior to union formation. In addition, it is imperative that the SADC members continue to address issues of product diversification, intraregional trade and political unification, all of which should be governed by a centralised fiscal authoriry.

This diploma thesis deals with the preparation of the two EU Member States, namely Czech Republic and Slovakia, for joining the euro area. The first part briefly describes the formation of the Economic and Monetary Union. The core part lies in the assessment and in the comparison of both states regarding the fulfillment of the criteria for adoption of the single currency. The detailed analysis is focused mostly on the nominal and the real convergence.

The accession to the European Monetary Union is fundamentally changing the role of the Czech national bank. Aim of this work is to describe and evaluate this new role of the CNB in connection with the transfer of its former powers to the ECB. The theoretical part of the work deals with the role of central banking in general, the role of the CNB before the accession to the EMU and the role of ECB in monetary union. The work reviews compliance with the conditions required for the accession to the EMU. Further it focuses on the analysis of CNB monetary policy in recent years, particularly its interest rates policy. In view of the future situation in the field of monetary policy the work draws on the experience of Slovakia after its entry into the euro zone and respondes to the question of whether uniform monetary policy is equally applicable to all member states of the euro area by using the Theory of Optimum Currency Area. The work also analyzes the actions of the ECB and the CNB caused by the current economic crisis.

The diploma thesis identifies and assesses current problems of the European Monetary Union, based on: firstly, theoretic approach which reviews the position of monetary union within the range of alternative exchange rate regimes, secondly, historic approach which explains evolutionary principle in the process of European monetary integration, and thirdly, economic approach which analyses the viability of the euro area by application of the criteria of the optimum currency area theory. Subsequently, the roots and development of today's euro area crisis are described and also future scenarios of development in Greece and entire euro area are briefly outlined. The analysis shows that the European Monetary Union by far does not meet the optimum currency area criteria and thus the euro area is considerably vulnerable to future asymmetric shocks.

Multi-speed European Union is a very up-to-date topic especially in terms of the finance and debt crisis, which deepened the differences between member states' economies. Multi-speed integration is one of the ways how to satisfy the claims of all member states, respect their different socioeconomic conditions and interests and at the same time not to disturb the integration process. The objective of this thesis is to introduce the concept of multi-speed integration from different theoretical points of view, to outline its historical development and assess its positive and negative impacts on the EU as a whole and on Slovakia. The analysis of impacts of the Economic and Monetary Union's multi-speed character on Slovakia is the key part of this thesis. These impacts on Slovakia are both positive and negative, but some of them cannot be categorized in general. In the aggregate the positive impacts prevail.

The introduction of euro in 2002 was considered to be a risky "experiment. Even before its actual existence, many economists have doubted the success of the Economic Monetary Union (EMU) emphasizing the potential costs of such a bold action. The traditional Optimum Currency Area by Mundell (1961), Mc Kinnon (1963) and Kenen (1969) has pointed out the loss of the exchange-rate mechanism and the structural differences among the member states as the main sources of costs within a monetary union. Ten years after the circulation of euro, the ongoing Greek debt crisis has revealed the imperfections of the EMU. Greece has become the "black sheep" of the union, having accumulated unsustainable levels of public debt and deficits that could pose a threat for the future of the Eurozone. It is widely believed that the profligate fiscal policies of the Greek government and the domestic flaws of the Greek economy have played an importan role on the country's debt crisis. However, the impact of Greece's accession to the EMU on the current crisis is still a moot question.

Introduced graduation thesis engaged in chosen implications on joining the euro area by the Czech Republic. The main target is to find the response for question: How much contributive is to enter the European Monetary Union (EMU)? The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first one includes historical and political development of European monetary integration, institutional effectiveness and economic development analysis of EMU. Following section considers the topic of EMU as a optimum currency area – objective conditions are also tested by way of Czech Republic example. Here I came to the conclusion that conditions of optimum currency area are not satisfied in many respects. Chapter number three describes the topic of nominal convergence, chapter number four describes the topic of real and price level convergence. Czech Republic is being characterized by low price level whose stepwise fitting is expected to become more complicated by virtue of using common monetary policy. Cost-benefit analysis of joining EMU is mentioned in last chapter. The most significant cost is accounted a loss of independent monetary policy, on the other hand the stable exchange rate is believed to be the most considerable benefit. The recommendation stating that Czech Republic is advised to join EMU later date is mentioned in final conclusion.

The thesis evaluates a need of the Fiscal compact measures, its adequacy and impacts on the Eurozone namely based on evaluation of indebtedness of selected member states. The evaluation is carried out by the empirical-analytic research, where the euro zone is analyzed from the perspective of the theory of optimal monetary area, the issue of member countries indebtedness and impacts of indebtedness on the entire euro zone. The thesis also evaluates the existing instruments of fiscal discipline and their deficiencies and new Fiscal compact as an instrument for stabilization and correction. The thesis examines the accuracy of the initial hypothesis that the Fiscal compact as an instrument of fiscal discipline is entirely essential measure of the future euro area functioning. It had been proven that a monetary union can not effectively operate without the long-term fiscal union.

La formation d'une union monétaire prive les États membres de l'utilisation unilatérale de l'outil monétaire. Dès lors, une orientation efficace des politiques économiques s'impose à travers (i) une hiérarchisation des cibles macroéconomiques, (ii) une identification des instruments appropriés et (iii) une mise en œuvre adaptée. Cette thèse fournit des réponses à cette orientation afin d'assurer une plus grande efficacité des politiques économiques à travers une analyse théorique et empirique appliquée au cas de l'UEMOA qui constitue un laboratoire exemplaire d'analyse des problématiques économiques en union monétaire. / The creation of a monetary union deprives the member States of the unilateral use of the monetary instrument. Therefore, an effective orientation of economic policies is required through (i) a hierarchy of macroeconomic targets, (ii) identification of appropriate instruments, and (iii) appropriate implementation. This PhD thesis provides answers to this orientation in order to ensure greater effectiveness of economic policies through a theoretical and empirical analysis applied to the case of the WAEMU which constitutes a singular analytical laboratory through which to study the economic policy of a monetary union.