The European Monetary Institute (EMI) was the forerunner of the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important centra ...

(ECB), operating between 1994 and 1997.

History

The EMI was created 1 January 1994 to oversee the second stage in the creation of monetary union. The EMI itself took over from the earlier

European Monetary Cooperation Fund The European Monetary Cooperation Fund (EMCF) was a fund established in April 1973 by members of the European Economic Community (EEC) to ensure concerted action for a proper functioning of the Community exchange system. The EMCF was located in Lu ...

(EMCF). The EMI met for the first time on 12 January under its first President,

Alexandre Lamfalussy Alexandre, Baron Lamfalussy (; 26 April 1929 – 9 May 2015) was a Hungarian-born Belgian economist who served as President of the European Monetary Institute (EMI) from 1994 to 1997, which was the forerunner to the European Central Bank (ECB) ...

. On 1 July 1997 Lamfalussy was replaced by Wim Duisenberg who would then go on to serve as the ECB's President. The institute was dissolved on 1 June 1998 with the creation of the ECB and the

European System of Central Banks The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) is an institution that comprises the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks (NCBs) of all 27 member states of the European Union (EU). Its objective is to ensure price stability ...

(ESCB) which took over its expanded responsibilities as the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

was launched.

Role

The EMI was the key monetary institution of the second phase of the

Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union The economic and monetary union (EMU) of the European Union is a group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages. There are three stages of the EMU, each of which consists of prog ...

. The EMU encouraged cooperation between the national banks of the

member states A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign s ...

of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

(EU) and laid the foundation for the euro. It had less than 250 staff, mostly seconded from national central banks, and was based in the Eurotower,

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

(

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

), where the ECB is now based.European Monetary Institute: Preparing to die
The Economist 3 April 1997

References

{{Authority control 1994 establishments in the European Union European Central Bank European System of Central Banks

History

Role

See also

References