Abstract
The book builds on the previous study History of European monetary integration: from national currencies to the euro (C.H. Beck, Prague, 2008).
Its aim is to explain the main events that surrounded the common European currency since its birth in January 1999 to the end of the first half of 2013, when the Euro Area was still getting out of the deep debt crisis. The book is not limited to simple enumeration of historical facts, it strives for their critical evaluation as well.
On the background of historical events the reader may recall a number of disputes about benefits and costs of single currency that changed content in the course of its real existence and undergone an unprecedented boom during the period of sharp financial, economic and debt crises. The ideas are presented in the spirit of practical monetary policy, purposefully framed by the process of European monetary integration.