The ECU, or European Monetary Unit, introduced for bookkeeping purposes in the ECS in 1979 but legal tender since the first minting of an ECU in Belgium in 1987, performs the function of the Vereinstaler of 1838 in the Zollverein. But while national and geographic boundaries are no obstacles to cars and airplanes cellular phones and the World Wide Web, the 14 currencies still circulating in the EC are. The introduction of a common European currency seemed, and seems, a logical step in this progression. The goal during this second phase is to promote the member states' fiscal and monetary convergence. In December 1995 the governments agreed on the name euro for the common currency and developed a time-table for its introduct on phase three of the EMU, which is scheduled to begin on January 1, 1999.
Multinational corporations are pleased.
They have long been clamoring for a common currency. They are certainly valid points. The average citizen also stands to gain. But what is good for Daimler-Benz is not necessarily good for the country. It has resorted to the fire sale of some of its most valuable assets, for example, Lufthansa German Airlines, the Postbank, and its Deutsche Telekom shares, to reduce the current budget deficit.