ABSTRACT
European progress toward monetary union takes place within the highly institutionalized setting of the European Union (EU). This chapter examines the ways in which formal institutions and decisionmaking procedures constrain the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) process. The EU's structure has both created demands for and facilitated cross-issue linkages, and these linkages characterize the successful bargaining on EMU and its: stability in the early stages. However, success also required ratification. Domestic ratification procedures and changes in the EU's context of linkage created challenges for the ratification of the Maastricht treaty. Ratification was also tied to concerns about democratic accountability, which arose from current legislative procedures and are the subject of ongoing institutional reform.
