it proved viable even in difficult times. such as during the upheavals in the european monetary system in 1992 - 3. at that time the dutch flatly rejected preconditions on the part of others for the purpose of separating – at least for a while – the guilder from the d - mark. the d - mark / guilder duo held up, even in hard times. the dutch always turned out to be reliable partners, even when german policies were themselves temporarily in turmoil in the wake of reunification. and where overcoming structural problems on the labour market is concerned, the dutch have for some time rightly been mentioned as a model for us in germany. in the meantime, both currencies, the guilder and the d - mark, have integrated their tradition of stability into the euro. and the dutch and germans alike hope that the euro will take over and expand that legacy. ii the common currency, with its present structure and present strategy, did not just fall into europe ’ s lap. the road to that goal was a long one, and involved many setbacks. and the present blueprint for the design of monetary union and for a monetary policy geared to the medium term is the quintessence of the experience gained over the last thirty years. needless to say, that also includes good experience, such as the lastingly successful linking of our two currencies on the basis of our common orientation towards stability. but disappointments likewise played a part. europe had to learn why over - hasty exchange - rate experiments and a monetary policy aiming directly at employment and growth targets ultimately always failed. the long road began back in the sixties, when changes in the fixed rates of the bretton woods system altered the exchange rates within the community as well. it was then that initial ideas of a common european currency came up in the commission. to many people, they appeared to be a logical consequence of the common market, and particularly of the common agricultural policy, which was based on fixed units of account. the subject was first taken up seriously by the summit meeting at the hague in 1969. a working group chaired by the then prime minister of luxembourg, pierre werner, was commissioned to map out the route to a monetary union. it was not long before the two key questions of a monetary union cropped up at that time : first, how can the necessary economic convergence of the participating countries be ensured? that is the question as to the economic foundation. and second, which political

mr tietmeyer discusses the euro : the new common currency address by the president of the deutsche bundesbank, prof hans tietmeyer, on the occasion of the 7th europe lecture sponsored by the vsb foundation, utrechts nieuwsblad / amersfoorts courant and hogeschool van utrecht in utrecht on 29 march 1999. i it is a great honour and pleasure for me to address you here in utrecht this evening. holding a europe lecture in the netherlands is really something special. in your open - minded, lively and progressive country, european spirit and culture are at home. since the establishment of the european “ community of six ”, your country has certainly ranked among the most integration - oriented nations in the eu. so it comes as no surprise to find that some of the most momentous decisions have been taken under dutch presidencies. particularly in the field of monetary integration, european history has undoubtedly been written in the netherlands. - the summit meeting at the hague in 1969 marked the starting point of the first ( albeit vain ) approach to a common european currency during the seventies. - it was in maastricht in 1991 that the community mapped out and adopted a new route to a common currency. on the basis of the maastricht treaty, entry into monetary union was finally accomplished at the beginning of this year. - the amsterdam summit of 1997 was intended to lay the political foundations for a lasting monetary union. as you will know, for a long time it seemed essential to us in germany, too, that definite political progress should soon supplement that far - reaching monetary step towards integration. unfortunately, although some headway was made, the agreements reached in amsterdam proved unable to fulfil expectations in major respects. but that was least of all the fault of the dutch hosts. all that remains for the time being is for us to pin our hopes on an amsterdam ii. the netherlands has, however, not only been the venue of major formal agreements on monetary integration ; it has also engaged in practical monetary integration itself – not only multilaterally, but also in bilateral terms. given the close links between the guilder and the dmark, the dutch have lived from an early date in a de facto monetary union with their neighbours in germany. that early, bilateral monetary union had two major characteristics that we all desire for today ’ s european monetary union as well : first, it was unequivocally stability - oriented. and second,