In order to convey the impact of the euro on the European structure,  Jean Boissonnat has entitled his book “the Revolution in 1999”.  In fact, the euro is not just a simple conversion calculation between currencies, affecting only our monetary relations with our partners in the euro zone. It also implies a different economic culture and different relationships with the citizens of the whole European Union and the rest of the world.  Obviously, the euro is not the cause of the deep changes in society through which we are living, but is does help us adapt to them.

We cannot come by the privileges of an international currency without meeting certain obligations going beyond convergence criteria or restrictions imposed by the Pact of Stability and Growth.  Having a currency whose intrinsic value is guaranteed by an independent central bank presupposes profound adjustments that are not just a matter of course and that the people of Europe must learn to make in their approach to society.  For instance, how many of our leaders have really got around to speaking about the abandonment of the competitive devaluations of their currencies which in the past used to make up for exaggerated rises in costs: or, for that matter, about giving up policies based on chronic public deficit or excessive public debt linked to a life-style above our means and unsustainable in that they passed on to future generations the weight of social and pensions systems ill-adapted to the inevitable globalisation of the economy and the ageing of the population of Europe?   

So it is no accident that a programme initially based only on the euro should have led to writings also covering cultural, economic and political diversity in Europe, not to mention citizenship.  “A single currency : you have to earn it”,  as Jean-Claude Juncker*,  President of Eurogroupe  and Head of the Government  of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg., regularly reminds us.

What’s a currency worth on the international markets without a government to support it?  None of the European monetary unions of the XIXth century survived in the absence of a political union and the weakness of certain national currencies was the result of a lack of confidence not so much in their economies as in their governments.   If the people of Europe want to maintain their past position in the world, they will have to adapt the European political system to the needs of a more integrated modern world.

The changes to society through which we are living are confusing, as is evidenced by the opposition to globalisation; although it was actually invented by the Europeans in the XVth Century.  Besides, monetary and economic questions are complex; so the following teaching material may sometimes seem complicated.   Nevertheless,  PROMEURO and the EAT hope that, with this aid,  teachers will be able to explain more thoroughly to the young students their new responsibilities in a world where the search for domination is being replaced by the sharing of sovereignty, a precondition for enduring peace in the post-modern era.

The “Traineurope” programme has been developed by PROMEURO jointly with EAT and several European promotional organisations of which the main ones are the Belgian section of “The Union of European Federalists” (http://www.uef.be),  “ The European League of Economic Cooperation” (http://www.elec.easynet.be),  “the Permanent Forum of the European Civil Society ”(http://www.europa-jetzt.org/forume).

This programme could not have seen the light of day without the work done on PROMEURO’s previous programmes in French by INTELVIDERE (http://www.intelligere.biz) and without the financial support of the European Investment Bank (http://www.bei.org) and the European Commission (http://ec.europa.eu/index_fr.htm).  

Jean-Jacques Schul, President of the PROMEURO Association

      

“Monetary union is a matter of peace and war”
Helmut Kohl*, Former Chancellor of the Republic of Germany

“The euro is not just a futuristic gadget.  Thanks to the cohesion and solidarity of the member countries of the European Union, it will provide that increase in productivity and economic and financial potential which will guarantee healthy growth, giving new hopes to the coming generation.”
Pierre Werner*, honorary Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,  September 1997.