The Financial Times Guide to Using the Financial Pages, 6th Edition

16

The European economy: market integration and monetary union

“I want the whole of Europe to have one currency; it will make trading much easier.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

“The path to European monetary union will not be a stroll; it will be hard and thorny.”

Karl Blessing,

Bundesbank President, 1963

• National economies can no longer be examined in isolation. International flows of goods, services and capital are making economies more and more interdependent and this movement looks set to continue. Nowhere is this more evident than in the European Union (EU).
• The EU is an economic and political union of 27 member countries. The countries share a free trade area and several common laws on property rights and individual liberties.
• The common European ...