EN
The paper attempts to look at the financial crisis on two levels – macro – analyzing the situation of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and the micro – reference to examples of international companies. The introduction describes the origins of the crisis and the conditions of the “spill over” of its effects on various areas, including geographical and sectoral. The second, crucial part of the paper, means to the analyze selected countries in the European Union, seen as a "fire points" hindering Western European growth. The final section of the paper refers to some aspects of the crisis in business – as seen through the lens of transnational corporations. The summary of the discussion is an attempt to assess the effects of the crisis for the EU’s position in the global economy.