ABSTRACT
While these recommendations were immediately accepted by eleven out of the twelve member governments, the UK government dissented and expressed reservations about both the single currency and the proposed European central bank. It also maintained that the last two stages of the De10rs plan - those dealing with monetary union after the UK had joined the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) - were vague and unpractical, and argued that more thought needed to be given to the issues before the Community committed itself to the rest of the plan. The UK govern-
ment then issued its own alternative proposal in November 1989, which envisaged a competitive, evolutionary approach towards European monetary union in place of the planned, institutional approach adopted by Delors. The main point was that the countries of the Community should promote competition between their different currencies. The process of competition would then lead the stronger currencies to displace the weaker ones and eventually, perhaps, to the strongest emerging as a de facto common currency.
