This made it possible for all of the countries which have now adopted the euro to develop and agree on the overall economic framework needed to complement and support a monetary union. Like the process of European integration itself, a framework for co-ordinating economic policies has developed gradually and over a considerable period of time.
The result is a flexible framework in which national policies are appropriately co-ordinated rather than centralised. And this is indeed quite appropriate. In a monetary union it is even more necessary than before for economic policies to take national differences into account.