We spoke about European Monetary Union, but we didn t have it.

Ending the monetary union would end the European project itself, and wreak unmanageable havoc.

But the crisis confronting Europe is not so much about political union as it is about European Economic and Monetary Union.

The price of the monetary union s survival, and thus that of the European project, is more community a banking union, fiscal union, and political union.

That default will be due in large part to its membership in the European Monetary Union.

The European Union, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development must match American support.

The country qualified for the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU) in 1998 and joined with 10 other European countries in launching the euro on 1 January 1999.

There is an alternative an economic growth strategy supported by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Finally, the referendum contains an unstated question about the future of European Monetary Union (EMU) and the euro.

CAMBRIDGE The European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the euro are about to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

Quite simply, the risks for small peripheral countries are inherent in the system created by the European Monetary Union.

European Union heads of government, and the European Central Bank, initially rejected the idea of involving the International Monetary Fund, but without a fall back plan.

BRUSSELS For a year, European policymakers have been busy fixing bugs in the design of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).

But such doubts ignore the political and cultural factors that buttress a deep European commitment to preserve the monetary union.

Finally, political union means transferring the prerogatives of national legislatures to the European Parliament, which would then decide how to structure Europe s fiscal, banking, and monetary union.

The European Union s commitment to monetary union enabled the eurozone s Mediterranean countries to improve their debt dynamics and public finances dramatically.

Indeed, Europe s shift from the modest customs union of the European Economic Community to the single market and common currency of today s European Monetary Union was itself a fundamentally political move, one with strategic implications, of course.

A reduction in borrowing costs constituted a powerful motive in the 1990 s for southern European governments to join the monetary union.

The French argued for European economic governance alongside the monetary union, but that looked to others as imposing too much French planisme .

Stability and Prosperity in Monetary Union

Historically, monetary union was regarded as the route to political union.

A crucial element of restoring confidence in Europe is agreement on a roadmap for the eurozone to underpin its monetary union with a fiscal union and a banking union, including pan European supervision and deposit insurance.

But the European Council also created a Task Force under President Herman Van Rompuy to elaborate concrete proposals for reforming the monetary union.

And then Greece, Ireland, and Portugal lost access to credit markets, requiring bailout packages from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

Until the late 1990 s and the advent of monetary union, most government debt in the European Union was domestically held in 1998, foreigners held only one fifth of sovereign debt.

The African Monetary Union is the proposed creation of an economic and monetary union for the countries of the African Union, administered by the African Central Bank.

This peculiar arrangement is a further major risk for economic and monetary union, to add to those of uncoordinated fiscal policies and the lack of a European equivalent of the International Monetary Fund.

Monetary union without banking, fiscal, and political union has been a disaster.

Toward a Genuine Economic and Monetary Union?

Europe s monetary union has worked remarkably well.

European Union

European Union

European Union

Then, distressed sovereigns that had already lost market access Greece and Ireland were bailed out by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

The same is true of developments like the Union's common foreign and security policy or Monetary Union, with its Euro and European Central Bank.

Beyond economics, many observers noted that European Union citizens would accept tight monetary bonds only if they were participating in a shared political community.

Above all, economic and monetary union means just that two unions, monetary and economic.

A single currency means a single monetary policy and a single interest rate, even if economic conditions particularly cyclical conditions differ substantially among the member countries of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).

Up to the late 1990 s and the advent of monetary union, most European Union sovereign debt was domestically held in 1998, the overall ratio of foreign held debt was only one fifth.

The difference, it was argued, was monetary union.

European policymakers, for their part, worry that a sovereign debt restructuring will damage the financial system and be a black mark for their monetary union.

As for Europe, many investors still assume that a moment will arrive when we can definitively conclude that European Monetary Union is finished or saved.

EU European Union

European Union, Delegation of the European Commission

But the difficult negotiations that led to the agreement eclipsed European Council President Herman Van Rompuy s recent report, Towards a Genuine Economic and Monetary Union, which calls for unity far beyond a banking union.