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Fifty Years of Economic and Monetary Union: A Hard and Thorny Journey

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Book cover Reflections on European Integration

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics ((PSEUP))

Abstract

‘Hard and thorny’ though its path may be, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has been a constant presence in debates about European integration. Remarkably, in the light of a widespread scepticism, this path was pursued to its destination. The historical narrative of this journey is one of the most extraordinary in the 50-year history of the Treaty of Rome. No less fascinating, though more an invitation to speculation, the creation of an ‘incomplete’ EMU in 1999, with a less complete economic than monetary ‘constitution’, promises that the post-euro path will also prove ‘hard and thorny’. This chapter analyses these two ‘hard and thorny’ paths, the path to the euro and monetary and currency union and the post-euro path.

The path to European monetary union will not be a stroll; it will be hard and thorny.

Karl Blessing, president of the German Bundesbank, 27 January 1963, remarks on NDR radio programme

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© 2009 Kenneth Dyson

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Dyson, K. (2009). Fifty Years of Economic and Monetary Union: A Hard and Thorny Journey. In: Phinnemore, D., Warleigh-Lack, A. (eds) Reflections on European Integration. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230232839_9

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