The first systematic analysis of why Britain and France parted company on the issue of European monetary integration. Ikemoto reveals that Britain was much keener to participate in the early stages of monetary integration than previously thought; Britain and France pursued broadly similar policies on the issue until the end of the 1970s.

The first systematic analysis of why Britain and France parted company on the issue of European monetary integration. Ikemoto reveals that Britain was much keener to participate in the early stages of monetary integration than previously thought; Britain and France pursued broadly similar policies on the issue until the end of the 1970s.

A Europe Made of Money is a new history of the making of the European Monetary System (EMS), based on extensive archive research. Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol highlights two long-term processes in the monetary and economic negotiations in the decade leading up to the founding of the EMS in 1979. The first is a transnational learning process involving a powerful, networked European monetary elite that shaped a habit of cooperation among technocrats. The second stresses the importance of the European Council, which held regular meetings between heads of government beginning in 1974, giving EEC legitimacy to monetary initiatives that had previously involved semisecret and bilateral negotiations. The interaction of these two features changed the EMS from a fairly trivial piece of administrative business to a tremendously important political agreement. The inception of the EMS was greeted as one of the landmark achievements of regional cooperation, a major leap forward in the creation of a unified Europe. Yet Mourlon-Druol’s account stresses that the EMS is much more than a success story of financial cooperation. The technical suggestions made by its architects reveal how state elites conceptualized the larger project of integration. And their monetary policy became a marker for the conception of European identity. The unveiling of the EMS, Mourlon-Druol concludes, represented the convergence of material interests and symbolic, identity-based concerns.

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, grade: 1,4, Dublin City University (Business School), course: Course EU Politics, language: English, abstract: The creation of the European and Monetary Union (EMU) has been one of the most determined and successful projects carried out by the European Union (EU) – and it is still in progress since eleven EU-countries are, following the Maastricht treaty, legally required to join the Eurozone as soon as they meet the convergence criteria. The reasons for the creation of EMU have been widely discussed among scholars; some focus on the request for political integration that would resulted from an EMU, some claim that the EMU was established to promote growth and investment. The assignment will hence “discuss how the creation of EMU was both an economic and politically driven process”. Chapter 1 outlines events and agreements which indirectly led to the EMU. Chapter 2 assesses the Delors Report and the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) which affect EMU directly . Chapter 3 concludes by analysing the mentioned 30-year process leading to the EMU and gives a brief outlook. This approach has been chosen because it is essential to study the historical events leading to the Delors Report and finally the Treaty on European Union (TEU) in order to analyse the creation of EMU.

This text provides an unrivalled account of the history, theory and practice of monetary integration in Europe.

The Road to Monetary Union analyses in non-technical language the process leading to adoption of a common currency for the European Union. The monetary union process involved different issues at different times and the contemporary global background mattered. The Element explains why monetary union was attempted and failed in the 1970s, and why the process was restarted in 1979, accelerated after 1992 and completed for a core group of EU members in 1999. It analyzes connections between eurozone membership and Greece's sovereign debt crisis. It concludes with analysis of how the eurozone works today and with discussion of its prospects for the 2020s. The approach is primarily economic, while acknowledging the role of politics (timing) and history (path dependence). A theme is to challenge simplistic ideas (e.g. that the euro has failed) with fuller analysis of competing pressures to shape the nature of monetary union.