EUROPEAN UNION’S STRUCTURAL CHALLENGES: THE WAY FORWARD | EURINT 2019 PRICE STABILITY - A MAIN OBJECTIVE OF EUROPEAN MONETARY POLICY Tudor Mugurel AURSULESEI * , Liviu-George MAHA ** Abstract According to Article 127 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the main objective of the European System of Central Banks is to maintain price stability. Through a monetary policy strategy, the Governing Council aims to stabilize inflation to the lowest level, below 2% in the medium term. The EU Member States have assumed the transposition of monetary policy into national policy and compliance with the inflation threshold. However, the implementation of European policies lies with the political decision-makers of each state, who most often place their interests above the interests of the Union. The research aims to analyse how the states have implemented European monetary policy. Monetary policy imposed an annual inflation rate of maximum 2%. In 2018, only 12 of the 19 European Monetary Union Member States managed to maintain the inflation rate below 2%. Keywords: Eurozone, inflation rate, European monetary policy, Maastricht Treaty Introduction The inflation rate plays a key role in the development of the European Union and the euro area. This indicator is a criterion of real convergence, also found in the Maastricht Treaty. In order to move towards an optimal monetary area, the European Monetary Union must pay close attention to price stability across the Union. Any disturbance of inflation in a Member State has repercussions on the whole area. The research aims to analyse the European monetary policy. We consider such an analysis to be appropriate, especially now in a period of impasse for the European Union and the Eurozone. We want to see how the states have succeeded in implementing the monetary policy and whether they manage to stabilize their inflation below 2%. In order to accomplish this goal, we identified three main objectives: describing European monetary policy, identifying methods for * Tudor Mugurel AURSULESEI is PhD Student at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration Iasi, Romania; email: aursulesei.tudor.mugurel@gmail.com. ** Liviu-George MAHA is Professor at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration Iasi, Romania; e-mail: mlg@uaic.ro.