European Monetary Union Quotes & Sayings

The single currency should allow the European Union, and therefore France, to balance its monetary strength with the United States. It should help us adjust to the development of China. — Laurent Fabius

The fact that we're going through a crisis is an opportunity for Europe to be more coordinated and more integrated. We're actually talking about a European Monetary Fund or euro bonds, about guarantees for countries, about economic governance in the European Union. That shows the strength of Europe. — George Papandreou

Here we have the Schengen agreement, and the truth is that for years we trusted each other and set border controls on the outer borders of the European Union. And as was the case with the economic and monetary union, with this step, regarding the management of the Schengen area, we did not go all the way in terms of political solutions. — Angela Merkel

The heart of the matter is that the very nature of the European Union, and of this country's relationship with it, has fundamentally changed after the coming into being of the European monetary union and the creation of the eurozone, of which - quite rightly - we are not a part. — Nigel Lawson

It is obvious that the monetary union among 17 very different European countries does not work. As an economist, I know that the Eurozone is not an optimum currency area, as defined in economic theory. — Vaclav Klaus

For a small open economy that trades mostly with the euro zone it makes absolute sense to be part of the currency union. Our currency has already pegged to the euro since 2002. We don't have an independent monetary policy. We are regulated by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, but we are not able to reap all the profits. Our businesses want to save the transaction costs. — Dalia Grybauskaite

Political union means transferring the prerogatives of national legislatures to the European parliament, which would then decide how to structure Europe's fiscal, banking, and monetary union. — Barry Eichengreen

The monetary union tries to handle two groups of countries which differ greatly in terms of economic culture. First, the North-West European countries [ ... ] which aspiring to rules and discipline, and the Mediterranean countries [ ... ] which aspiring political solutions to economic problems. The first group [ ... ] aspires to solidity, the second group aspires solidarity, that is to say; other people's money. — Frits Bolkestein