Abstract

The introduction of the euro represents a great step in the direction of deeper European integration and a success for Franco-German cooperation. As we will see in this article, the stability policy of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) constituted a fundamental condition for the acceptance of the single currency in Germany. One should not today replace the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, to which states are bound and which guarantees a measure of budgetary discipline, by general economic coordination undertaken ex ante and which does not in theory bind members of the EMU. European states must take charge of their own economic modernisation, with this constituting a prerequisite for renewed growth and job creation. As for the Eurogroup, it is first and foremost more efficient external representation which will reinforce it.

Elke Thiel is a Professor of European politics at the Otto-Friedrich University, in Bamberg (Germany).