Before Brexit, there was Grexit; before an EU member decided to leave the Union, it was widely considered that the eurozone crisis would result in one of the members of the common-currency area – Greece – being expelled from the club.

As the eurozone crisis unfolded, the voices predicting the end of the euro multiplied. This would have been either as a result of an unravelling following a Grexit, or as the conscious decision of stronger countries to walk away from a weakened eurozone that had proved impossible to hold together. It was a situation that some analysts called an “orderly dismantling” of the eurozone, but which has always been a contradiction in terms. If the Brexit process has shown us anything, it is that the departure of a member state from the EU can never be an easy affair. This becomes an order of magnitude more complicated in the case of a currency union.

Partly due to the policy initiatives taken during the crisis, but also in part because of a realization of the difficulties of any member leaving the euro, the situation today looks vastly different; the danger of the collapse of the common-currency area seems to have receded, if not disappeared altogether. In fact, the euro area has seen a remarkable turnaround. By early 2013, the common currency no longer faced imminent danger; by 2015, the currency redenomination risk that haunted the euro area for five years was tackled when a Euro Summit decided against Greece leaving. By early 2019, the eurozone was in its seventh year of economic expansion, with no economy contracting, and unemployment at the lowest rate in the last 20 years, having declined significantly (although still remaining high) even in the crisis-hit countries. This is reflected in popular attitudes: three out of four Eurozone citizens support the common currency – the highest percentage in the last 15 years (Eurobarometer 2019).

Weaknesses remain, but few analysts still predict that the euro is doomed. In fact, the 12 original eurozone members have now been joined by another seven to make a monetary union of 19; in addition, a number of other countries are also using the euro while not being formally part of the eurozone (Montenegro, Kosovo, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino).