What are the Problems and Possibilities of Economic Monetary Union?
What are the Problems and Possibilities of Economic Monetary Union? European Monetary Union (EMU) was first introduced in 1969 at a summit of the European Economic Community in The Hague, the members arranged to endeavour and reduce the fluctuations in their currencies in order to coordinate national policies. 1 (McCormick). Jacques Delores, in 1989 as the president of the Commission decided to introduce a 3 stage plan designed to increase the movement towards EMU, the plan attempts to fix exchange rates and introduce a single currency, the Euro. This plan was not completed until 2002 when the Euro coins and notes began circulating. In order for members of the European Union to join the Euro they were subject to convergence criteria, which confined the levels of government debt and national debt, inflation rates, exchange rates and interest rates the member country is allowed to have. Converging to these criteria and adopting the Euro has provided many different outcomes, some of which are negative and other which will benefit the economies of the member countries. This essay shall examine the problems and possibilities of European Monetary Union in order to determine whether EMU is beneficial to all that have taken part, and to discover where Economic Monetary Union is headed. In order to be part of the Economic Monetary Union, the member countries adopted the Euro