Title: European Monetary System - Wikipedia
Headings: European Monetary System
European Monetary System
Contents
History
Background, 1960 to 1971
1972: the Werner Report is published and EEC countries peg their currencies
The EMS is created
Creation of the European Currency Unit
German monetary policy dominates
Changing operating principals and preparing for the Euro
1992 crisis
Criticism
See also
References
Further reading

Content: The currency snake established a single currency fluctuation band of +/-2.25%, however Italy left the snake already in 1973. The EMS is created
At a meeting of the EEC in Brussels on 5 December 1978, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt successfully championed the EMS, which was implemented via resolution at the meeting. The EMS officially entered into force on March 13, 1979 with the participation of eight Member States ( France, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany and Italy ). Creation of the European Currency Unit
Main article: European Currency Unit
European currency exchange rate stability has been one of the most important objectives of European policymakers since the Second World War. Between 1982 and 1987, European currencies displayed a range of stable and unstable behavior. For example, the Dutch guilder remained quite stable with respect to the Mark, the Italian lira exhibited a sharp downward trend throughout the life of the EMS, and the French franc, the Belgian franc, the Danish krone and the Irish pound all escaped trends of successive devaluations to emerge more stable. At the same time that the EMS was created, the Council of the European Union Ministers created a new monetary unit, the European Currency Unit (ECU). The ECU was the official monetary unit of the EMS, but it was purely a composite accounting unit, not a real currency. The ECU's value was based on the weighted average of a basket of 12 European currencies;