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When the present European Union took its first steps, it was the first President of the Commission, the Christian Democrat Hallstein, who said that the construction of Europe could be compared to a three-stage space missile. The first stage was the customs union and the realization of the single market, which were then launched but only entered their full regime on 1st January 1993. The second stage was the monetary union. This was not realized until the Cold War had ended, and the Community understood that the time had come to take that step. Its result, still incomplete, is the euro zone. Lastly, the third stage, which is based on the results of the other two, is the political union. The second stage, as was rightly observed at Maastricht, was fundamental since without it, it would not have been possible to bring to completion the customs union. A devaluation of the national currency would no doubt have had the same effects as a rise in customs duties. A single currency extends the market to such a degree that the results automatically become very positive, often even spectacular. The success of any monetary unification obviously requires that each of the various participating nations possesses a monetary and financial policy that is easy to coordinate with the others. The famous Maastricht criteria were introduced just to this end: reduction of inflation, currency exchange without great fluctuations, reduction of the public debt and, in particular, a macroeconomic system in equilibrium also with the public sector. In this way, and only in this way, was it possible for a new united Europe to be built on solid foundations. This, it goes without saying, is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition. European competitiveness must simultaneously be improved, because the EU now runs the risk of lagging behind, in spite of the Lisbon Agenda, which seemed to have given it a strong impulse. On the other hand, the Union is obliged to seek social cohesion. Factors such as labour contract, the distribution of income, or the development of welfare must not be considered just one among many cards in the hand of the EU. If we are backward in technology and if, contrariwise, we are advanced in what has been called the social Europe, we cannot permit ourselves the luxury of not placing budgetary stability in first place. If this is not done, economic chaos would gain the upper hand, and the crucial work of Schuman, Adenauer and De Gasperi would melt like snow under the sun. We would then have the ignominy of hearing that in the 20th century a singular experiment had been begun, that of the journey towards the European dream, but that at the start of the 21st century, as a consequence of our inability to balance the books, that dream has vanished.
