Economic and Monetary Integration in the European Union: At What Cost

摘要

Ever since the Treaties of Rome established the European Economic Community,economic and monetary union (EMU) have been one of the desired ends of European integration. Indeed, governments of varying political persuasions of each member state have supported the principle of EMU throughout the decades as witnessed by the series of treaties and agreements they have ratified within the European Union (EU). Despite the general consensus on economic and monetary integration, why then are there still large and perhaps insurmountable obstacles to its achievement. Will short term national political considerations continue to be an inevitable disruption to the integration process. Or, does the precisely mapped-out time table and somewhat rigid convergence criteria for EMU upset the evolutionary nature of the integration process. Was, for example, the exit of the pound and the lira in 1992 from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) a reaction to forces of this kind. In other words, what are the costs for the member states of the EU and for the EU as a whole in their attempt to establish total economic and monetary unification. This thesis will attempt to answer these questions.