As early as in 1989 the Delors report, a blueprint of the Monetary Union named after the President of the European Commission at that time Jacques Delors, stated that “an Economic and Monetary Union could only operate on the basis of mutually consistent and sound behavior by governments and other economic agents in all member countries.
(…) Uncoordinated and divergent national budgetary policies would undermine monetary stability and generate imbalances in the real and financial sectors of the community.” The current sovereign debt crisis in three smaller euro area countries has disclosed several institutional weaknesses within the euro area and the European Union, respectively.