The aim of achieving Economic and Monetary Union by 1999 at the latest called for the complete liberalisation of capital movements within the European Community, closer coordination of national economic policies, as well as institutionalised cooperation among monetary authorities within the European Monetary Institute.
An emerging “stability consensus” among policymakers in Europe on the desirability of a stable currency and sound public finances provided the crucial backing for a, sometimes painful, process of budgetary consolidation and disinflation, in which domestic policy objectives needed to be brought in line with the need to fulfil the Maastricht convergence criteria.