This experience demonstrated, for example, that decision-making by simple majority within a common institution such as the ECB is more efficient and faster than intergovernmental decision-making and that it is necessary to strengthen the convergence of the euro area economies and facilitate the completion of Economic and Monetary Union in the spirit of the “Five Presidents’ Report” published in June this year – editor’s note: composed of Donald Tusk (European Council), Martin Schulz (European Parliament), Jean-Claude Juncker (European Commission), Jeroen Dijsselbloem (Eurogroup) and Mario Draghi (ECB).
It represents a political bond but also acts as a source of economic strength.2 As the world’s second most-used currency,3 the euro allows countries to invoice trade in their own currency, reducing the pass-through of exchange rate volatility to import prices and thus to inflation.4Membership of the euro area gives countries a genuine voice in setting a shared monetary policy rather than de facto accepting a policy set elsewhere.