Other scholars are more inclined to think that instant refocusing is unlikely. Agents should be expected to learn gradually about the new regime, and probe and test it with the benefit of time. The extraordinary episode of the convergence towards Economic and Monetary Union in Europe in the second half of the 1990s offers a laboratory case for discriminating between these two hypotheses.
The Maastricht Treaty came into force in November 1993. Its fundamental inspiration was the need to ensure that participants in EMU are like-minded in their pursuit of stability in economic and monetary affairs. It vested the European System of Central Banks with a very high degree of independence and safeguarded it against external interference.