Coming of age: report on the euro area

Nearly twenty years after the Delors Report provided the blueprint for Economic and Monetary Union, fifteen years after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, and almost ten years after the launch of the euro, EMU still looks like unfinished business. In many ways the euro is a major success, yet there is also dissatisfaction with the way the euro area performs. Disappointing economic performance, disagreements about governance, recent dramatic developments in international financial markets and major changes in the external environment all raise questions about what reforms are needed in EMU policies and in the governance of the euro area. With more countries preparing to join the euro, there is a need for clarity on what EMU is about, and what it should become. This report is a contribution to that discussion.