The European Union Review 

 

 

La régulation économique et sociale de l’Union monétaire: un état des problèmes

Jacky Fayolle - Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE), France

Abstract

Although the Euro has been with us for some months, strenuous efforts are still required on the part of European institutions to adapt to the new situation. The exchange rate stability is as a result of Monetary Union rather than of stability having been attained in the relative strengths of the Members’ economies. The programmes of convergence were carried out as exercises to permit entry, rather than genuine attempts at convergence for its own sake. This mind-set must change – Monetary Union is with us, irreversibly. The management of the economy must capitalise on the benefits of increased integration, aiming for stable growth over and above previous rates of domestic growth and implementing more daring social and distributive policies. These expansion policies must take the place of the no-longer available competitive deflation, as instruments for increasing employment. This requires that managing employment and unemployment should now be treated as an integral part of macroeconomic management, rather than, as has hitherto tended to be the case, part of a quite separate social policy.