Withdrawal from the eurozone
Member state ceases use of the euro as its currency
Withdrawal from the Eurozone is the process whereby a Eurozone member-state, whether voluntarily or forcibly, stops using the euro as its national currency and leaves the Eurozone.
Background
The possibility of a member state leaving the Eurozone was first raised after the onset of the Greek government-debt crisis. The term "Grexit" itself was reportedly first used by Citigroup economists Willem Buiter and Ebrahim Rahbari in a 2012 report about the possibility of Greece leaving the Eurozone. In the 2015 edition, the term "Grexit" entered the Oxford English Dictionary, defined as "a term for the potential withdrawal of Greece from the Eurozone, the economic region formed by those countries in the European Union that use the euro as their national currency.
Speculation followed about other countries, such as Italy, withdrawing from the Eurozone as well, with economist Nouriel Roubini submitting in 2011 that "Italy may, like other periphery countries [of the Eurozone], need to exit the euro and go back to a national currency, thus triggering an effective break-up of the Eurozone."
There are some European cases of a country having a common currency obtaining their own, when countries split apart. Czech koruna and Slovak koruna split from Czechoslovak koruna in 1993, both at exchange rate 1:1. Banknotes were stamped as a way of converting them to the new currency. Additionally, the Slovenian tolar and Croatian kuna were created by leaving the Yugoslav dinar, and the Estonian kroon, Latvian lats, and Lithuanian litas were created by leaving the Soviet ruble.
Legal environment
It has been argued that there is no provision in any European Union treaty for an exit from the Eurozone. Moreover, it has been argued, the Treaties make it clear that the process of monetary union was intended to be "irreversible" and "irrevocable." However, in 2009, a European Central Bank legal study argued that voluntary withdrawal is legally not possible but expulsion remains "conceivable." Although an explicit provision for an exit option does not exist, many experts and politicians in Europe have suggested that an option to leave the Eurozone should be included in the relevant treaties.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Withdrawal from the eurozone” is member state ceases use of the euro as its currency. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Withdrawal, eurozone and Member, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “member state ceases use of the euro as its currency” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25037303. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2015, 2011 and 1993.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Withdrawal from the eurozone”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Withdrawal from the eurozone primary sources, Withdrawal from the eurozone archive and Withdrawal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Withdrawal from the eurozone”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Withdrawal from the eurozone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.