The sovereign debt crisis that has now been troubling the euro area for nearly three years originated as part of the scenario of the global financial turbulence that started in the summer of 2007, but it is characterised by specific causes and peculiar problems. The efforts to diagnose its causes, as well as to cure it and to prevent future difficulties of the same kind and severity, require careful consideration of the features of the institutions of the European Union, of the organisation of the financial sector of the euro area and of the economic policies of the member countries.