This presentation will set out the main argument of Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol's forthcoming book on the making of Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Going beyond the simple observation that the EMU created by the Maastricht Treaty was incomplete, namely, that the economic union was much less developed than the monetary union , the book explores how European policymakers conceived and debated the economic dimension that could support the functioning of a possible future monetary union.
The book specifically focuses on three policy areas – economic policy coordination, the role of the European Economic Community’s budget, and banking regulation/supervision – and explores what were the political constraints, the dead ends, the trade-offs, the compromises that prevented the creation of a genuine Economic and Monetary Union.
While several factors explain the failure of these proposals, Mourlon-Druol argues that an opposition to greater centralisation, understood as the transfer of greater powers to a supranational European institution, predominated, and continues to bedevil the EU until the present day. During the event, specific examples from each of the three policy areas will be developed.
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The Economic and Monetary Union Laboratory (EMU Lab) is a collaborative initiative driven by the Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Chair and the Pierre Werner Chair, aiming to reassess the Economic and Monetary Union's structure in light of current European and global economic conditions.