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The ERM and the single currency http://www.parliament.uk/ (0 comments)

The Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) created in 1979 laid the foundation for the later Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The UK joined the ERM in 1990 (and left in 1992) but obtained an opt-out from joining EMU in return for agreeing to the next major Treaty amendment, the Maastricht Treaty, in 1991. The Maastricht Treaty (the Treaty on European Union) also created the three-pillared structure which included intergovernmental decision-making in foreign and security policy and justice and home affairs matters.

 

 

This Treaty was controversial in the UK Parliament, because the Conservative Government under John Major had opted out its social policy provisions. In 1993 a confidence motion narrowly ensured parliamentary support for the Government’s EC policy and the Treaty was subsequently ratified. The next Treaty amendment agreed in Amsterdam in 1997 included adoption of EU social policy provisions by the Labour Government of Tony Blair.

On 1 January 1999 the single currency, the Euro, was adopted as the official currency of 11 of the 15 EU Member States. EMU was completed in 2002 when Euro coins and notes entered circulation for Eurozone States