@kork75
The birth of the euro The 1st January 1999 is a day that will remain mentioned in all history books and the manuals of economic and financial sciences. In fact, with the beginning of the last year of the second millennium, the third and final phase of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) began and, with it, a new currency was officially born: the euro. First of all, the euro was born at the same time in eleven states of old Europe; which, another unique fact in history, had taken this decision without any constraint, but of their own free will. A gesture that had political implications that were not insignificant, because it meant limiting its decision-making power in monetary policy; it meant reducing the freedom of action of its central bank; it meant decreeing, albeit gradually and almost painlessly, the disappearance of its national currency. Achieving such a result had not been an easy task. It is precisely the long and troubled gestation that gives us further proof of the extraordinary nature of the birth of the euro. The idea of a common currency took shape within the then European Economic Community (EEC) in 1986, when, with the Single European Act signed in Luxembourg on 17 February, the Heads of State and Government of the EEC countries began to remove controls on capital movements and the remaining tariff barriers, accelerating the creation of an integrated banking and financial market and, in fact, creating the conditions for the start of the first phase of EMU, which ended in 1993. In 1989, with the so-called Delors Report, the operational lines for the achievement of EMU and the creation of a single currency were further specified. Based on this document, the Maastricht Treaty, signed on 7 February 1992 and well known to all, was formulated. The notoriety of Maastricht derives from the fact that in that treaty the macroeconomic requirements were specified, the full fulfilment of which would have allowed the signatory countries to enter the single currency. With the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty, a crucial political path began for the Old Continent, bringing to an end the objective of achieving economic monetary unification: it is the official act of birth of the European Union.
https://pixabay.com/it/illustrations/proteggere-le-mani-euro-mano-665088/ Thus, with the drafting of the economic and institutional convergence criteria, the second phase of EMU, that of sacrifices and strict financial laws, began. Between 1993 and 1998 exchange rate stability, the reduction of the public deficit, the compression of the public deficit and the downward alignment of prices and interest rates were the objectives pursued by all the signatory countries at Maastricht. Meanwhile, in December 1995, the Madrid European Council decided that the euro (the name chosen for the new currency) would be born on 1 January 1999 and would coexist with the other national currencies until the end of 2001; that from 1 January 2002 until 30 June of the same year there would be dual circulation; that from 1 July 2002 all national currencies would be declared out of the legal tender. The sacrifices required of European citizens to comply with the Maastricht parameters were not in vain if it is true that on 1 May 1998 eleven of the fifteen EEC countries were promoted directly to the third stage, i.e. euro adoption from 1 January 1999.
https://pixabay.com/it/vectors/blu-giallo-white-stelle-euro-logo-39105/
No comments yet