After all, eleven European countries are actually on the road towards monetary union. And hitherto they have also largely linked their mutual exchange rates, though not always without any problems in the past. Monetary union does in fact represent a maximum of policy integration in the monetary field. Monetary policy is not merely coordinated, but unified.
And that will be for good, because in practice this step cannot be reversed. There were of course also some other options. With the European Monetary System, Europe’s approach has for a long time been that of an exchange rate arrangement with fixed but adjustable parities; at times there have been some considerable difficulties, but in the end the system has proved largely successful.