ABSTRACT
President Francois Mitterrand and Finance Minister Edouard Balladur were accordingly drawn to the idea of monetary union as a means of countering the power of the Bundesbank, thereby attempting to tie Germany down ‘Gulliver-like’. This difference between political and economic rationale was illustrated by Balladur being a primary instigator of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), campaigning in January 1988 for the ‘rapid pursuit of the monetary construction of Europe’. At Hanover it was decided to create a Committee to examine how monetary union might be established, while it was agreed that the means of achieving EMU would be examined at the June 1989 Madrid European Council. Acceptance showed Thatcher could no longer resist the pressure of D. Hurd and Major for British engagement in the monetary debate. Momentum for EMU was influenced by the Commission through the Delors Report, but more significantly was the result of an intrinsic bargain between France and Germany.
