One Money For Europe

Europe is on the road to monetary union (EMU) even if there may be delays and diversions on the way. The focal point of EMU will be its single currency, valid throughout all participating countries, and replacing the national currencies. There will be considerable transitional pain and stress, most of all for member states with very high public debts. For the rest, the road ahead will not be smooth, but should be assisted by easier monetary policy in Germany since 1993. For some countries at least, the pain will be aggravated unnecessarily by design defects in the transitional rules for entry - which there is still time to remedy. The author - no admirer of a federal Europe - describes how EMU could actually work better in a confederal Europe with no federal chief executive and with a relatively weak Parliament. The independent Eurofed would be responsible for managing economic policy on an EC-wide basis, while national governments could use fiscal policies to mitigate local deviations. Weak regions and poor peripheral countries would require more flexible assistance from EC resources, however.

The European Community is negotiating a new Treaty to establish the constitutional foundations of an economic and monetary union in the course of the 1990s. Coming hard on the heels of the completion of the single market by 1992, economic and monetary union, including a new European Central Bank and the ecu as the single currency, will be the most important milestone in the construction of the new Europe since the Treaty of Rome of 1957. This study provides the only comprehensive guide to the economic implications of economic and monetary union. Being the work of economists inside the EC Commission, it also reflects the considerations influencing the design of the union. The study provides a unique bridge between the insights of modern economic analysis and the work of the policy-makers preparing for economic and monetary union.

The European Community is negotiating a new treaty to establish the constitutional foundations of an economic and monetary union in the course of the 1990s. This study provides the only comprehensive guide to the economic implications of economic and monetary union. The work of an economist inside the Commission of the European Community, it reflects the considerations influencing the design of the union. The study creates a unique bridge between the insights of modern economic analysis and the work of the policy makers preparing for economic and monetary union.