Abstract:

The 21st century has brought along some crises for Europe. In addition to political and institutional crises, economic/financial crises have also led the agenda items discussed specifically in relation to Europe. The financial crisis, which was brought to the agenda in 2008 in the USA, affected Europe in a short time, also with the undeniable effect of globalization. Especially Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, known as PIIGS countries, were among the EU member countries, which felt this effect the most deeply. Nevertheless, it does not seem possible to relate the dimension of the crisis reflected on PIIGS countries solely to the developments experienced in the USA. Broadly, that it was not complied with Maastricht criteria strictly and specifically Greece’s unethical behaviors were the other factors that triggered this process. Even though in the literature, predominantly the US and Europe dimensions of this crisis and its reflections on Turkey were examined, in this study, whether PIIGS countries were able to overcome the crisis after a period of more than ten years was analyzed based on certain data. Although it was found that the countries concerned other than Greece were partially successful in the light of some data, it was observed that Greece still experiences the process of crisis under many economic headings.

Keywords: