If, on the other hand, we understand political union as the establishment of an entity that resembles the traditional nation state, the European Union may still have some way to go, if indeed this is the direction that Europeans want to take. Today’s Union is not a European Federation, for example, or a United States of Europe, with a constitution and a single executive. The euro marks the achievement of full integration in the monetary field. In purely functional terms, it is therefore an end point, rather than an intermediate step. However, with the euro, we now form a “Schicksalsgemeinschaft”, a community with a shared future. Our economies are linked, and so our policy decisions have become a matter of concern for all. We have a legitimate interest in developments and political actions in other euro area countries, since we are affected by them - for better or for worse. If I may use a “domestic” metaphor, the marriage in which the euro has joined our countries is about more than just living under the same roof, it is about sharing a common vision and about managing life together. Concluding remarks In the context of the current attempts to help the European Union work smoothly and on a sustainable basis following its future enlargement, I would like to conclude by mentioning the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The process of European integration has delivered half a century of stability, peace and prosperity.
Willem F Duisenberg: Maastricht and the future of Europe Speech by Dr Willem F Duisenberg, President of the European Central Bank, at the presentation of a stamp commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty, Bundesfinanzministerium, Berlin, 22 October 2003. *  *  *  Dr Eichel, Dr Genscher, Dr Waigel, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great honour for me to make one of my final public appearances as President of the European Central Bank on the occasion of the launch of a “Sonderpostwertzeichen” - a special stamp - to commemorate the Treaty on European Union, better known as the Maastricht Treaty. It is not as a Dutchman that I consider this Treaty to be one of the most important milestones of the European integration process, but as a truly convinced European. Together with the Governing Council of the ECB, I have been responsible for managing the single monetary policy and the single currency of the euro area, and I will not deny that my job has been inextricably linked to the wider historical process of building an “ever closer union” of the peoples of Europe. In this respect, I consider that the Maastricht Treaty embodies the most decisive impulse in the deepening of the European Communities established in the 1950s and strengthened by the Treaty of Rome. The move to Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was a profoundly political act - despite the fact that the underlying rationale was predominantly economic, namely that a single market requires a single currency.