Removing Obstacles to Integration

European integration played an important role in liberalizing banking and financial markets. Based on archival material from central banks, commercial banks, and bankers’ association in France and the United Kingdom, this chapter sheds light on the role of the European Economic Community in three areas: the realization of a common market in banking, the liberalization of capital movements, and the broader financial integration in the EEC. It argues that in the EEC, financial liberalization had two motives: the deepening of the Common Market, and consolidation of European monetary cooperation/integration. Removing obstacles to integration was the main way used to achieve these goals. The chapter further challenges the work of Rawi Abdelal, which overstates the role of France and downplays the role of the United Kingdom in the liberalization of the financial sector.

The Crisis of the Bretton Woods Monetary System and the Beginning of European Monetary Cooperation

The article aims to identify the impact of the crisis of the Bretton Woods monetary system on the beginning of European monetary cooperation. Russian scholars' publications on European monetary integration usually examine in detail the internal prerequisites for the emergence of the Werner Plan and only sketch the external environment. Drawing on available European and American sources, this research provides a more nuanced picture of the origins of European monetary cooperation in the context of a general collapse of the post-war international monetary order. The article begins with the characteristic of the main features of the Bretton Woods monetary system. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the intrinsic contradictions of the Bretton Woods mechanism, such as the problem of liquidity, confidence in the key currencies, and the adjustment mechanism, generated numerous monetary crises. All efforts to reform the international monetary system stalled because of disagreements between countries with surplus and deficit payment balances. The research also focuses on the US monetary policy. As the US dollar was the main reserve currency, the stability of the entire monetary system depended on its position. Since the late 1960s, conflicts over monetary issues developed between the United States and Western European countries, culminating in the Nixon administration's unilateral decision to abolish the gold standard in August 1971. Monetary crises and the weakness of the dollar pushed the countries of the European Economic Community to develop their own currency grouping. The article analyses the Werner Plan of 1970 that proposed the creation of an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with a single European currency as the ultimate goal. Based on fixed exchange rates between European currencies, the EMU represented a regional replica of the Bretton Woods system. The single European currency was seen by Europeans as an alternative to the dollar and the unpredictable American policy. The author concludes that the end of transatlantic monetary cooperation gave an additional impetus to the development of European monetary integration. Although first European efforts to create the EMU had failed because of the different approaches of France and the Federal Republic of Germany as well as the economic crisis of the early 1970s, the Werner Plan marked a crucial phase in the history of European integration. The Werner Report became a blueprint for the European Monetary System (EMS) of the late 1970s. The success of the EMS paved the way for the creation of the European Monetary Union envisaged in the Maastricht Treaty of 1991 establishing the European Union and the adoption of a single European currency - the euro.

Supranational Currency Regulation: Theoretical and Practical Approaches

Subject. The article deals with the issues of supranational currency regulation, deeming it a prerequisite for the return of the world economy to a sustainable, confident and balanced growth path. Objectives. The article aims to study theoretical and practical approaches to the organization of supranational monetary cooperation of sovereign States at the global and regional levels. Methods. For the study, I used scientific methods of systems approach, analogy, modeling, and abstraction. Results. The article shows that in current conditions of development of the world economy the euro, being the only fully functioning project of supranational monetary integration, has not yet created conditions for the participating countries for harmonious and stable development. The practice of transferable ruble circulation proved the possibility of simultaneous expansion of mutual trade and balanced development of all participants of supranational currency cooperation. Conclusions and Relevance. To enter a new level of supranational currency cooperation, sovereign States are required to develop an integrated approach to solving a number of economic, technical and political problems. The results of the research can be useful in the development of theoretical and practical approaches to supranational currency regulation.