ABSTRACT
The euro crisis has highlighted the pivotal role of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the governance of the European Union. This chapter focuses on the monetary policy expertise of the ECB. The predecessor of the ECB, the European Monetary Institute (EMI), had already done the preparatory work for the new central bank, but the transition from EMI to ECB was of high symbolic importance. The institutional context in which the ECB would conduct its monetary policies before the euro crisis was shaped by the asymmetrical design of the euro. This meant that whereas the monetary policy was centralized and transferred to a powerful and independent institution, fiscal and economic policies remained largely in the hands of the MS. The euro-crisis has led to a more symmetrical EMU in two ways: through a limited localization of monetary policy and a limited Europeanization of fiscal policy.
