ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a public debate in Germany over the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This debate can be divided into: a European identity debate, an economic debate, and a price stability debate. The chapter demonstrates those debates formed a necessary link between German interests and the EMU. The contribution of this article lies in empirical and theoretical work, which dispels two common misconceptions in the academic literature. One is that the EMU was finalized in 1991, leaving the EMU on a linear path and unlikely to change. The second misconception is an important contribution to European integration literature because it provides the possibility of bridging seemingly conflicting theoretical literature. The German Federal Constitutional Court ruling in 1993 politicized the EMU debate in Germany for the first time. The seminal work in relation to social constructivism and European integration was introduced in 1999 in a special edition of the Journal of European Public Policy.
