The Case for European Monetary Union

In 1988, inspired by early progress in ‘completing the single market’ under the 1992 programme, the European Union (EU) charged the then President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, with preparing a blueprint for full economic and monetary union (EMU). By 1991, the Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the ‘Maastricht Treaty’, had been signed, setting a final deadline of January 1999 for the start of EMU (Council of Ministers, 1992). Despite currency upheavals and the onset of recession in the mid-1990s, the building blocs for monetary union were subsequently set in place. The European Monetary Institute (EMI), the forerunner of a future European Central Bank (ECB), began operations from its Frankfurt base in January 1994. The ‘ Euro ’ was chosen as the name for the new single currency and national central banks were reformed ready for the creation of a single central banking system under the control of the ECB. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.