Luxembourg and the creation of the European single currency - Lessons from the History

In political terms, European integration and multilateral cooperation enabled Luxembourg to become an equal partner in the decision-making processes and leadership of European organizations. In economic terms, these features gave the country the tools it needed to forge a development model that could underpin the creative growth of its social market economy, while preserving the majority of its vital interests—particularly the steel industry and the financial centre—over the long term. Focusing primarily on the 1970 Werner Report, which served as a blueprint for the European single currency - the euro - the presentation examines a key period in European integration history and one of the major European achievements of Luxembourg and of Pierre Werner (29 December 1913– 24 June 2002), former Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, who left his mark on the future of his country and is unanimously recognised as one of the architects of Economic and Monetary Union