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Is Maastricht a Good Contract?
Author(s) -
Winkler Bernhard
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5965.00149
Subject(s) - maastricht treaty , convergence (economics) , accession , international economics , incentive , european debt crisis , stability and growth pact , european union , economic and monetary union , database transaction , economics , european monetary union , treaty , european integration , business , monetary policy , political science , monetary economics , international trade , macroeconomics , market economy , law , member states , computer science , programming language
The Maastricht Treaty calls for the creation of European Monetary Union (EMU) by 1999 but makes accession of individual countries conditional on the fulfilment of specific convergence criteria. The Maastricht transaction trades the replacement of the Bundesbank by a European Central Bank at the centre of European monetary affairs as a reward for prior convergence. This article interprets the Maastricht Treaty provisions as a contract device that organizes a difficult transition to EMU by providing convergence incentives, co‐ordinating conflicting national interests and extracting information about candidate countries’‘stability culture’.