The European Monetary System and European Integration: An Evaluation

National borders are becoming increasingly faint on the economic map of Europe. The 1989 Delors Commission report calls for both liberalization of goods and factor markets as well as increased coordination of macroeconomic policies among members of the European Community. The process of economic integration of goods and factor markets is to culminate with the removal of obstacles to trade, labor movements and capital movements within Europe by 1992. The logical extension of the process of macroeconomic coordination, begun by the institution of the European Monetary System (EMS) in 1979, is the proposed European Central Bank. These movements, while continuing the trans-national European policies that began with the Treaty of Rome in 1957, represent significant new steps down the path towards European integration.