European monetary integration has come a long way since the establishment of the Rome Treaty in 1957. Subject to this paper is the influence of the German unification on the establishment of EMU....Show moreEuropean monetary integration has come a long way since the establishment of the Rome Treaty in 1957. Subject to this paper is the influence of the German unification on the establishment of EMU. Key-literature on the subject varies a great deal in perspective. Some claim that EMU is the direct result of national political-economic preferences, while others argue that without the prospect of German unification there would have been no such thing as a European monetary union. Most authors seem determined in taking one particular point of view, favoring either national political-economic or geopolitical preferences. On the basis of two hypotheses, a study of key-scientific publications (Moravcsik, 1998; Staal, 1999; Baun, 1995 and Sandholtz, 1993) and a situational analysis involving the EMS period, the EMU negotiation process and the period after Maastricht, this paper discusses the probability if the negotiations on EMU would have reached a deadlock without the prospect of German unification or if EMU would have been established also without this prospect, while it was a direct result of Franco-German national political-economic considerations.Show less
