ON THE FEASIBILITY OF A ONE-SPEED OR MULTISPEED EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION

This paper addresses two questions: (1) Is a twelve-country monetary union in Europe feasible? (2) Can monetary union be achieved at multispeed, i.e., with a small group of countries going first, and later admitting the others? After examining several politico-economic arguments concerning problems of feasibility of the union, we conclude with a fair amount of skepticism concerning the multispeed idea. We show that the final result of the process of monetary integration is dependent upon the number of countries that initiate it. Our discussion of feasibility sheds some light on the political economy of the recent (Fall 1992) turmoil in the monetary system of Europe. Copyright 1993 Blackwell Publishers Ltd..