By explicitly specifying in the Treaty 1 January 1999 as the definite  BIS Review 25/2004  1  target date for the introduction of the euro and by laying out a structured three-stage process for achieving that goal, the member countries of the EU unequivocally committed themselves as early as 1992 to actually making Economic and Monetary Union happen.
Establishing the necessary conditions for the creation of a single currency represented a big challenge for European governments. It required a high degree of nominal convergence towards price stability.