1976 ), memoires ( paris : fayard ). see luigi guiso, paola sapienza, and luigi zingales ( 2015 ), “ monnet ’ s error? ” nber working paper series 21121 ( cambridge, mass. : national bureau of economic research, april ). in a 2003 tv interview, chirac said, “ and whenever there ’ s been a crisis, we ’ ve emerged from it with a stronger europe. ” see tf1 and france2 ( 2003 ), “ excerpts of tv interview by president chirac to tf1 and france2, ” march 10. in november 2010, prof. issing ( then chief economist and member of the board of the ecb ) gave an address at the faculty of economics of the university of pavia for the honoris causa degree in international economic integration. he said, “ after all, ‘ europe, ’ to use this term, has been through many crises and all in all has emerged stronger from each one. ” see otmar issing ( 2010 ), “ professor otmar issing address, ” in “ otmar issing : an economist and architect of supranational institutions ( pdf ), ” introduction by guido montani, il politico ( university of pavia, italy ), no. 1, p. 22. a year later, at the 2012 jackson hole conference, i quoted jean - claude as having said, “ [ t ] he european project is a project in process. it was not set up with this particular aim of getting to a monetary union. we ’ ve had crisis after crisis since we started. at every stage of the process, we have heard the same story from americans.... ‘ you europeans don ’ t know how to make decisions. you ’ re always slow. what phone number should i call if i want to speak to europe? this dream is bound to collapse. ’ we have heard that every time, and we have been slow. but in the end we have emerged stronger from every crisis. ” i spoke to jean - claude recently to check that this is what he said in 2011. he replied that he had, but that he doubted that he had said “ we have been slow, ” since he generally states “ we have been bold. ” bis central bankers ’ speeches this leaves us with three questions : has modern europe developed primarily through crises? will it be stronger when this crisis is over?

example of a crisis leading to a strengthening of the european system – though the process to create emu – the economic and monetary union, not the european monetary union – began well before the erm crisis. the exchange rate and central banking provisions of the maastricht treaty were introduced on the schedule set out in 1991, with the ecb coming into existence in 1999. until about 2009, the monetary aspects of the plans for the development of the european union ( eu ) seemed to be a major success – but not a sufficient success to persuade all members of the the snake agreement was made among the six original countries of the eec plus another three about to join : denmark, ireland, and the united kingdom. by 1978, the original six members of the eec had been joined by denmark, ireland, and the united kingdom. bis central bankers ’ speeches union to become members of the ecb and adopt the euro, with the most notable standout being the united kingdom. the erm crisis also drove home the need for greater coordination of fiscal policies in the run - up to monetary union. members of the eu agreed to the stability and growth pact in 1996. although, as we all know, the conditions of the pact have not always been observed, nor enforced by brussels, the acknowledgment of the need for a coordinated fiscal policy to complement monetary union was still a step forward – one which may be drawn on in future. what lessons can we draw from this history of the region ’ s economic and monetary responses to earlier crises? do the results bear out the spirit of the statements by monnet and others about each crisis leading to greater strength? certainly, each setback and each crisis spurred policymakers to take steps that they might not otherwise have taken at that time, and the end result of those steps has been a more unified european monetary union. successive crises have not deterred policymakers from the goal of economic integration, but rather seemed to strengthen their belief in the need for it – and that integration is stronger today than it ever was in the past. looking back, the progress in this project from its earliest days after world war ii until today has been impressive. trade integration has led to the free flow of goods within the eu, and this has brought economic gains. greater trade integration has in turn generated a continued desire for greater monetary integration, which was put in place in 1999, and until recently seemed to be a major success. that success in turn made crystal