ABSTRACT
From its formation in 1957 until 1970 the fledgling EEC enjoyed a ‘golden age’ of economic prosperity and strong growth. Not surprisingly Europe’s leaders, urged on by France and Germany, looked ahead at future integration. With political integration still postponed by de Gaulle’s preference for intergovernmental co-operation over supranationalism Commission President Walter Hallstein made little progress beyond putting down a marker for his successors. But with de Gaulle’s resignation in 1969 the attention turned to plans for a single European currency. Quickly cobbled together following the 1969 EEC summit in The Hague, Luxembourg Prime Minister Pierre Werner compiled a report recommending monetary union on a ten-year timeframe from 1970 to 1980. Ambitious as well as optimistic the Werner Report envisaged a European Central Bank, co-ordination of fiscal policy and an exchange-rate policy vis à vis the dollar. But a ten-year timeframe was too long without clear intermediate staging points leaving the Report open to being overtaken by events, as duly occurred.
