Economic and Monetary Union; The Werner Report; Euro; Political Union; Supranational institutions; Christian Democracy; Consensus; Pierre Werner; Luxembourg in the European Integration process; Barre;Jenkins; Lamfalussy; Marjolin; Padoa-Schioppa; Poehl; Triffin; Tietmeyer
Abstract :
[en] As prime minister and finance minister of Luxembourg over 30 years, Pierre Werner played a major role in the building of a united Europe. This Christian Democratic intellectual and committed federalist gained strong reputation as a consensus-builder between larger powers (Germany and France) and between diametrically opposed positions (‘economists’ and ‘monetarists’), as well as for his ideas on monetary integration. From early 1950s, Werner advocates a European monetary system based on a currency unit and on a clearing house for central banks. In 1968 he delivered a clear roadmap to EMU founded on a symmetrical economic and monetary union, with political union as the ultimate goal. Werner’s vital input and the ‘effective parallelism’ principle he imagined, were evident in the Werner Report of 1970, which was offered as the blueprint for EMU in the EU. Based on the Werner family archives and original interviews, this chapter highlights Werner’s contribution as architect of EMU in a threefold way: intellectual input, negotiation methods and consensus building.
Research center :
British Aacademy - Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) > Contemporary European History (EHI)
Disciplines :
History Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others Macroeconomics & monetary economics Finance
Author, co-author :
DANESCU, Elena ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Center for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH)
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Pierre Werner, A visionary European and Consensus Builder
Publication date :
01 September 2016
Main work title :
Architects of the Euro . Intellectuals in the making of European Monetary Union
Editor :
Dyson, Kenneth
Maes, Ivo
Publisher :
Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom
ISBN/EAN :
978-0198735915
Pages :
93-116
Peer reviewed :
Peer reviewed
Focus Area :
Finance Law / European Law
Name of the research project :
Funding Fathers of the Euro
Funders :
British Academy, European Central Bank, National Bank of Belgium, Robert Triffin International Association
Commentary :
Who were key figures in the making of European monetary union? Which ideas did they contribute to ensuring that monetary union would be sustainable? How prescient were they in identifying the necessary and sufficient foundations of a sustainable monetary union?
This book provides the first systematic historical examination of key architects of European monetary union in the period before its launch in 1999. Using original archival and interview research, it investigates the intellectual and career backgrounds of these architects, their networking skills, and their own doubts and reservations about the way in which monetary union was being constructed. In the light of the later Euro Area, Architects of the Euro deals critically with not just their contribution to the making of European monetary union but also their legacy. The book brings together a distinguished group of scholars working on the history of Economic and Monetary Union.
