Title: The Euro: How a Common Currency Helped Europe Achieve Peace - HISTORY
Headings: The Euro: How a Common Currency Helped Europe Achieve Peace
The Euro: How a Common Currency Helped Europe Achieve Peace
A vision of peace led to the first economic union in Europe
Economic volatility made currency reform more important than ever
It took decades for a plan to emerge
How the currency got its name
A high-minded design—and an orderly rollout
Will the euro survive?
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Content: In 1967, both groups merged with the European Atomic Energy Committee to form the Commission of the European Communities, which was joined by other European nations throughout the years. Economic volatility made currency reform more important than ever
Europe was peaceful, and the currency of its various nations stable, for now. Common market countries grew more prosperous over the 1950s and early 1960. But the late 1960s threatened that newfound prosperity when international currency began to experience large swings in value. The EEC created a working group to try to figure out if it was viable to unite economically and monetarily, and in 1970 the Werner Report, named after the group’s chair, Luxembourg’s prime minister Pierre Werner, recommended that Europe adopt a single currency within a decade. It was a plan designed to help the region achieve economic equilibrium, but as the world economic crisis deepened, it was largely abandoned as each country grappled for monetary stability. It took decades for a plan to emerge
Europe wanted a single currency, but it took until 1989 for a serious plan to emerge again. The European Communities commissioned its president, Jacques Delors, to head a group that would figure out a plan for monetary unification. Its report proposed a clear road to a single currency, and in 1992, the Maastricht Treaty clearly defined what European unity would mean, and gave the European Union a new name. Under the treaty, progress toward the currency meant three stages: