The EU and the challenge of economic and monetary integration

Abstract

Since the elaboration of the 1970 Werner Plan on the realization by stages of economic and monetary union in the Community, the issue of economic and monetary integration has been at the core of the European integration process. Nowadays, following the outbreak of the economic and financial crisis, integration in the monetary field and the convergence of national economic policies are among the major challenges facing the EU Institutions and Member States. This debate will reassess the historical course of economic and monetary integration and the challenges ahead through first-hand accounts of some of its main protagonists, focusing on the economic and financial roots of the EC/EU and how international economic crises have shaped the EU as we know it.