EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION SINCE 1848 - A POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Based on actual historical, this book advances the controversial idea that European Monetary Union will only succeed if supported by much closer political union between the member states. A careful analysis of initiatives in the 19th-century shows that if a monetary union is based on an agreement between autonomous states, tensions arise which eventually destroy the arrangements. This leads to the conclusion that political union is a prerequisite not only for the sustainability of a monetary union, but also and especially for its irreversibility.