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European Central Bank (ECB)

The international use of the euro: What can we learn from past examples of currency internationalisation?

The recent State of the Union speech by Jean-Claude Juncker sparked a discussion about the potential wider use of the euro on the international stage. Historically, it is not the first debate of this kind. I review four previous cases of debates on international currencies to reveal the different scenarios associated with their greater use, as well as the need to have a clear objective for a currency’s internationalisation.

ERC-funded project EURECON – The Making of a Lopsided Union: European Economic Integration, 1957-1992

EURECON is a 5-year project financed by €1.5 million Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The goal of the EURECON project is to explore European policymakers’ views about how to make the organisation of the European Economic Community (EEC) fit for the creation of a single currency, from 1957 to 1992. The project will examine the origins of the issues that are currently bedevilling the European Union (EU) by investigating the period between the creation of the EEC in 1957 and the decision to create a European single currency in 1992.

The ECB minutes’ leak and the historian’s “black box”

In an article on the bailout of the Cyprus Popular Bank, the New York Times describes internal disputes within the European Central Bank on the basis of leaked ECB minutes – an episode that epitomises some of the challenges faced by historians.