A Success and an advantage

The introduction of the single currency “was one of the most important decisions” taken at the European Community level. Today the euro “represents a success, and an advantage for EU citizens, and the eurozone is a rock of macroeconomic stability” that “has saved us from the worst effects of the present crisis”, declared Hans-Gert Poettering, President of the European Parliament. He is convinced that the single currency, so far adopted by 16 member states, has “contributed to continental growth”.Means of payment and symbol of unity. On the occasion of the celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the single currency (launched as a book-keeping instrument on 1st January 1999 and in circulation as actual currency since 2002), held in Strasbourg on 13 January, Poettering recalled some of the “fathers” of the “historic decision”, including the Frenchmen Mitterrand and Delors, the German Kohl, the Luxembourgers Werner and Santer. “Helmut Kohl – said Poettering in particular – maintained that the single currency would be not only a means of payment, but also a symbol of unity and a gauge of political stability”. Now that a decade has passed, “we need to recognize” that the German Chancellor “was right” in his prediction.“Better a big ship than a small boat”. “The single currency was a decisive step in forging a closer union among the peoples of Europe”, declared Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, doffing for a moment his mantle as central banker and reflecting on the role of the euro vis-à-vis the wider process of European integration. In the first decade of the single currency he recalled, among the founding fathers of integration, De Gasperi, Schuman, Adenauer, Spaak, Monnet, and Giscard d’Estaing. “Today the euro guarantees price stability and hence it’s a real benefit for consumers, for international trade, for savings and for investments. More widely it has a positive action on our economic drive”. Trichet then continued with this image: “In these times of financial turbulence” on world markets, “it’s better to navigate in a large and safe ship than in a small boat”, in other words national currencies. Trichet, however, warned of some “technical” aspects of the euro; he underlined the need also for “sound economic policies” and to this end he also pointed to the role of the Eurogroup. “Moreover it is essential – he said – to apply the Stability and Growth Pact to have better balanced and more competitive national economies”.Creating a real economic community. Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup that comprises the 16 European member states that use the single currency, preferred to take history as his starting point to speak of the euro and recalled the first steps of the Economic and Monetary Union that date to the early 1970s, the debates that took place at the time and the vociferous opposition. “It was a long journey, not without difficulties – he recalled -. The detractors of this decision were numerous: politicians, economists and scholars, central bankers. But today we have to recognize that the euro is an anchor of stability, especially in a moment of crisis, and that it protects EU citizens from economic instability”. “Despite this, in this phase we ascertain strong national interests that are contrary to economic and financial integration. We need – continued Juncker – to create a real economic community that may truly be of benefit to cooperation between states”. The head of the Eurogroup looks to the future. “The single currency is an economic project, but, even before that, it forms part of a political design. That’s why the second decade of the euro ought to be characterized by still closer collaboration between its players”.“There’s still a lot to be done”. European Commissioner for Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia tackled the question by taking another perspective as his starting point. “The euro is now circulating in 16 States and forms part of the daily life of 320 million Europeans. So, in our wallets we have the symbol of an identity that is being consolidated, a tangible sign of the integration we began over fifty years ago”. In his role as “guardian” of the euro, the Spanish Commissioner reeled off a series of technical data regarding the economy of the euro zone. In particular he underlined the fact that “during these ten years we have created 16 million jobs, over double that of the previous decade. We have stimulated the single market and protected Europe from dangerous monetary oscillations. Imagine what the present crisis would have been like if we did not have the save shield of the euro, which protects us from further speculative attacks, public accounts out of control, and inflation”. On the other hand Almunia is at his most lucid in pointing out the limits in the application of the euro: the lack of coordination on the level of economic policies, and the fact that the euro circulates only in half of EU member states. That’s why, he adds, “we need to continue to work in the perspective of a community currency, for the well being of citizens, of our economies and of political Europe”.