Banque européenne : Une banque monétaire européenne dotée de fonctions de banque centrale

Abstract

A European Monetary Bank Endowed with Central Bank Functions The ultimate aim for complete European monetary union can be achieved only by radically different means than those put forward in the First Werner Plan. Total suppression of exchange rate margins and fluctuations between currencies has been superceded as a priority in favour of a more immediate goal consisting in the transformation of the ECU into a parallel currency, designed for international payment and as a reserve currency in gradual replacement of the Eurodollar. According to recent opinion polls among the population of the E.E.C., this seems to be a widely accepted priority and it also appears to be politically viable. The growth of the ECU as a parallel currency presupposes certain official measures being taken aiming at its increased liquidity, in relation to national currencies and at guaranteeing that debts in ECU will not engender unacceptable inflationist tension. A European Bank set up to manage the ECU would have to have the power to adjust ECU issues in accordance with non-inflationary growth requirements fo member States and to watch over parity between the ECU and the U.S. Dollar. The legal status of the Bank would have to be such that short-term political pressures could not threaten the long term interests of the E.E.C. In this light, complete European monetary union can be seen as the gradual growth of the use of the ECU in internal and external transactions rather than as a system of exchange rate stabilization between the currencies of member States.