A common or a single currency?

The market-driven approach to EMU had seemed a neat strategy to bring Europe closer to monetary union without needing a prior top-level political commitment. However, the promotion of the Ecu reached its limit – and the strategy developed by the Giscard-Schmidt Committee turned out to have less impact than hoped for. As soon as monetary stabilisation spread, the Ecu’s main advantage of risk reduction diminished. It became clear that companies needed a single, not a supplementary currency to fully profit from the single market.