Euro

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Euro Series Banknotes.

Theeuro(sign: €; code:EUR) is the official currency of theeurozone,which consists of 18 of the 27 member states of theEuropean Union:Austria,Belgium,Cyprus,Estonia,Finland,France,Germany,Greece,Ireland,Italy,Latvia,Luxembourg,Malta,theNetherlands,Portugal,Slovakia,Slovenia,andSpain.

Quotes

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  • With the euro, that form of pressure has gone.
    • Perry Anderson,"Depicting Europe",London Review of Books(20 September 2007)
  • Our Union is more than an association of states. It is a new legal order, which is not based on the balance ofpowerbetweennationsbut on the free consent ofstatesto sharesovereignty.From poolingcoalandsteel,to abolishing internal borders, from six countries to soon twenty-eight withCroatiajoining the family this has been a remarkable European journey which is leading us to an “ever closer Union”.And today one of the most visible symbols of our unity is in everyone’s hands. It is the Euro, the currency of ourEuropean Union.We will stand by it.
  • The most likely scenario is that EMU (Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union) will occur but will neither end Europe’s currency troubles nor solve its prosperity problems.
  • OnceItalyis in, with an appreciated currency, the country will soon be back on the ropes, just as in 1992, when the currency came under attack.
  • The most serious criticism of EMU is that by abandoningexchange rateadjustments it transfers to the labor market the task of adjusting for competitiveness and relative prices... losses in output and employment (and pressure on the European central bank to inflate) will predominate.
  • Italians dream that the ECB (European Central Bank) will make their life easier than theBundesbankdoes now... The new central bank is certain to establish itself at the outset as a direct continuation of the German central bank.
  • Instead of increasing intra-European harmony and global peace, the shift to EMU and the political integration that would follow it would be more likely to lead to increased conflicts within Europe.
  • A critical feature of the EU(European Union) in general and EMU in particular is that there is no legitimate way for a member to withdraw... The American experience with the secession of the South may contain some lessons about the danger of a treaty or constitution that has no exits.
  • When the Monetary Union was founded in 1992, it was a common understanding amongeconomiststhat a monetary union of states of very different economic strength could function only if either economic policy was communalized as well or the strong states were willing to pay for the debts of the weaker states.Politiciansignored this warning. Thefinancial crisisshowed that the economic experts were right. The Monetary Union deprives the states of a number of fiscal instruments such as revaluation or devaluation of the currency. This contributed to the crisis.
  • The fundamental problem of European monetary union lies in its incompleteness or lopsidedness. There was a much better preparation for the monetary side of monetary union than for the fiscal concomitants that should have underpinned its stability (and prevented the threat of large-scale monetisation of fiscal debt burdens). No adequate provision on a European basis existed for banking supervision and regulation, which, like fiscal policy, was left to diverse national authorities.
    • Harold James,Making the European Monetary Union,Harvard University Press, 2012. p.382
  • The eurozone’s significance was more than symbolic. It implied the gradual synchronization of its members’ economies, includingmonetary policy,nationalinvestmentandtransfers between rich and poor regions.For northern Europe the euro boundGermanyinto ever closer union. ForSpain,ItalyandGreece,it was a double-edgedsword.It signified merger with Europe’s most sophisticated economies, but also economic adjustments for which these countries were by no means ready.Britainhad joined the Exchange Rate Mechanism, but dropped out with thepoundunder extreme pressure on ‘black Wednesday’ in 1992. TheMajorgovernment declined to join the euro. It also ‘opted out’ of Maastricht’s ‘Social Chapter’, which covered areas such asemploymentrights.
    • Simon Jenkins,A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin(2018)
  • The euro is bad for Europe. The euro is bad for theNetherlands,it’s especially bad because it is a stimulus for politicians to kill theWelfare State.I look forward to aEuropean economyusing multiplecurrencies.In the end that will be much better: it will make us more resistant to shocks and makes us less vulnerable to what is happening now.
  • By trying to move prematurely to monetary union, we would run very serious risks. The dangers of forcing the pace have been amply demonstrated in Germany.Karl Otto Pohl,the director of the Bundesbank, has described Germany's experience as "a drastic object lesson" of the need for prior convergence before establishing a currency union. Reunification there has meant the rapid merger of two very different economies. The short-term consequences are a huge rise in the German budget deficit and risingunemploymentin eastern Germany, but for the rest of the Community their experience is salutary.It shows the strains and tensions set up by moving to currency union before there is proper economic convergence. In the case of Germany one strong currency and one strongeconomyeffectively took over those of a weaker neighbour. How much greater would those strains and tensions be if 12 very different states with different economies were now to adopt a single currency?
  • In a monetary union with irreversibly fixedexchange ratesthe weak would become ever weaker and the strong ever stronger. We would thus experience great tensions in the real economy of Europe. For this reason alone, monetary union without the simultaneous integration in fields like fiscal policy as well as regional and social policy is completely inconceivable... In order to create a European currency, thegovernmentsandparliamentsof Europe would have to be prepared to transfersovereignrights to a supranational institution.
  • Moving to a full monetary union in Europe is like putting the cart before the horse. A major shock would result in unbearable pressure within the Union because of limited labour mobility, inadequate fiscal redistribution, and a ECB (European Central Bank) that will probably want to keep monetary conditions tight in order to make the euro as strong as thedollar.This is surely the prescription for major future problems.

See also

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Wikipedia
Wikipedia
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Wiktionary
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Look upEuroinWiktionary,the free dictionary
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