Title: What is the Economic and Monetary Union? (EMU) | European Commission
Headings: What is the Economic and Monetary Union? (EMU)
What is the Economic and Monetary Union? (EMU)
Economic governance under EMU

Content: Economic integration brings the benefits of greater size, internal efficiency and robustness to the EU economy as a whole and to the economies of the individual Member States. This, in turn, offers opportunities for economic stability, higher growth and more employment - outcomes of direct benefit to EU citizens. In practical terms, EMU means: Coordination of economic policy-making between Member States
Coordination of fiscal policies, notably through limits on government debt and deficit
An independent monetary policy run by the European Central Bank (ECB)
Single rules and supervision of financial Institutions within the euro area
The single currency and the euro area
Economic governance under EMU
Within the EMU there is no single institution responsible for economic policy. Instead, the responsibility is divided between Member States and the EU institutions. The main actors in EMU are: The European Council – sets the main policy orientations
The Council of the EU (the 'Council') – coordinates EU economic policy-making and decides whether a Member State may adopt the euro
The 'Eurogroup' – coordinates policies of common interest for the euro-area Member States
The Member States – set their national budgets within agreed limits for deficit and debt, and determine their own structural policies involving labour, pensions and capital markets
The European Commission – monitors performance and compliance
The European Central Bank (ECB) – sets monetary policy, with price stability as the primary objective and act as central supervisor of financial Institutions in the euro area
The European Parliament - shares the job of formulating legislation with the Council, and subjects economic governance to democratic scrutiny in particular through the new Economic Dialogue