The Euro

Abstract

The euro will have to be introduced in stages. These are not those envisaged by the Delors Report, whose proposed stage three will culminate in the introduction of the new European currency (in January 1999) but three sub-stages, one of which will precede that date, and two of which will follow it. This phasing is necessitated by the technical and, to some extent, psychological difficulties of introducing the new money. There was some reluctance on the part of the EU Commission to accept this necessity, but it had become rather obvious, by mid-1992, to the members of the working groups set up after Maastricht, consisting of treasury and central bank officials.