Ratification (1992–3)

In The Hague in December 1969, the Heads of State or Government decided to establish Economic and Monetary Union in stages within ten years. Almost exactly twenty-two years later, on 10 and 11 December 1991, once again in the Netherlands, they agreed to amend the Rome Treaty to incorporate Economic and Monetary Union. On 7 February 1992, the Treaty was signed in Maastricht. Not a moment too soon: the political momentum that had been building up since the mid-eighties and that had been given such a boost by the unanimous Delors Report of 1989, was starting to dissipate. Several factors interrelated caused this reversal. The politicians, carried on by the political momentum, failed to carry their constituents along with them. The public sensed that EMU meant far-reaching changes but failed to understand its reasons or its consequences. At the same time the cyclical upswing, crucial for maintaining a political momentum of this kind, gave way to a downturn: real growth in the EC went down from 3 per cent in 1990 to 1 per cent in 1992, and in 1993 disappeared altogether. The same German unification that had first stimulated the upswing by creating additional demand, now, by pushing up interest rates, became a drag on growth and on the integration process.