European monetary integration - Short chronology 1950 - 1998

19 September 1950

European Payments Union established with retroactive effect from 1 July 1950. Objective: convertibility of European currencies.

15 March 1957

European Economic Community (EEC) established. Objective: Common Market.

29 October 1962

European Commission proposes Economic and Monetary Union. Basis: Van Campen Report.

1-2 December 1969

EEC heads of state or government envisage setting up an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in several stages. The Werner Group Report of 8 October 1970 proposes establishing EMU in three stages.

24 April 1972

The European narrower margins arrangement (the currency “snake”) enters into force as a concrete result of these deliberations.

5 December 1978

Decision to establish the European Monetary System (EMS) (enters into force on 13 March 1979). Like the “snake”, it is a fixed but changeable exchange rate system.

17-28 February 1986

Single European Act adopted (enters into force on 1 July 1987). Envisages the completion of the European Single Market by 31 December 1992.

27-28 June 1988

European Council establishes the Delors Committee, which is mandated to elaborate proposals to set up an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in several stages. Delors Report of 17 April 1989: three-stage plan.

1 July 1990

Stage One of EMU begins: liberalisation of capital flows.

9-10 December 1991

Heads of state or government agree in Maastricht on the Treaty on European Union (signed on 7 February 1992, enters into force on 1 November 1993). It contains the provisions for the second and third stages of EMU, the statute of the future European System of Central Banks (consisting of the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the member states) and the monetary union entry criteria.

16 September 1992-2 August 1993

Crises in the EMS.

1 January 1994

Stage Two of EMU begins. Convergence process intensified. European Monetary Institute established.

15-16 December 1995

European Council decides on a name for the new single currency: the euro.

17 June 1997

European Council adopts the “Stability and Growth Pact”. The pact is intended to ensure that the member states’ fiscal policies remain stability-oriented after they have entered monetary union.

2 May 1998

European Council decides that 11 member states have fulfilled the convergence criteria and are ready to adopt the euro.

1 June 1998

The European Central Bank (ECB) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) are established. On 13 October 1998 the ECB Governing Council defines the monetary policy strategy for the Eurosystem; from November 1998 it uses the term “Eurosystem” to refer to the ECB and the central banks of the countries that have introduced the euro.

31 December 1998

The conversion rates between the euro and the foreign currencies of the participating member states are irrevocably fixed.