The role of the Single Euro Payments Area for the potential single European market

Abstract

The creation of Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is the next stage of economic integration of Europe connected with clearings and payments area. The idea behind the activities within SEPA programme is the introduction of mechanisms for effective Euro payments in Europe and treatment of this area as a single market with all the consequences to do with the time of transaction and charges occurring. According to SEPA, different local solutions will be replaced by a common payment system and unified standards regulated by homogenous consumer law. This in turn shall bring in the following effects: easy, fast, safe and cheap payments for the whole European market. This article shows the conditions of implementation of SEPA programme and the consequences stemming from the single payments area.