Quotes & Sayings About Monetary Union

I became convinced that the advanced industrial countries, through international organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the World Bank, were not only not doing all that they could to help these [developing] countries but were sometimes making their life more difficult. IMF programs had clearly worsened the East Asian crisis, and the "shock therapy" they had pushed in the former Soviet Union and its satellites played an important role in the failure of the transition. — Joseph E. Stiglitz

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 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

Indeed, as subsequent events would show, debts, rather than deficits, make countries vulnerable in a monetary union. — Jean Pisani-Ferry

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

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

The euro is a sickly premature infant, the result of an over-hasty monetary union. — Gerhard Schroder

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

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a monetary union, putting out a fiat currency, composed of independent states. — Milton Friedman

For my generation, the monetary union has always been about forging peace. — Jean-Claude Juncker

When the Eurozone was started, a fundamental stabilising force that existed at the level of the member-states was taken away from these countries. This is the lender of last resort function of the central bank." EZ governments, "could no longer guarantee that the cash would always be available to roll over the government debt." Unlike stand-alone nations, EZ members did not have "the power to force the central bank to provide liquidity in times of crisis." This created a fundamental fragility in the monetary union. Without a buyer-of-last-resort, shocks that provide re-funding difficulties in banks or nations can trigger self-fulfilling liquidity crises that degenerate into solvency problems. — Richard Baldwin

After choosing monetary union, further political union and workable governance in Europe was always going to be necessary. — Najib Razak

Giving Northern Europe a veto over Southern Europe's budgets will not hold a monetary union together. The euro zone will continue to need the weaker countries to stomach decades of high unemployment to grind down wages. — Austan Goolsbee

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

The euro is a vital issue for Germany. There is no other country that derives as much benefit from the common domestic market and the monetary union as Germany. — Peer Steinbruck

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

We already have a federation. The 11, soon to be 12, member States adopting the euro have already given up part of their sovereignty, monetary sovereignty, and formed a monetary union, and that is the first step towards a federation. — Joschka Fischer

I'm a firm believer in the monetary union. — Wolfgang Schauble

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