ECU is a paperless monetary unit in a type of account record in the member countries’ central banks. The value of ECU is determined on the basis of the average weighted exchange rate of these 12 governments. In order to determine a share ofthis or those currency in ECU the GNP (gross national products) of the member countries were matched.
A new stage of the West European integration development was the program of the currency and economic union creation which was established by Jacques Delors’s committee in April, 1989. Delors’s plan stipulated the creation of the Common Market, the EU competition motivation, the coordination of economy, budget and tax policies in order to control the inflation, to stabilize the prices and economy growth, the general government deficit minimisation and the cover methods improvement. On the basis of Delors’s plan to December, 1991 the Maastricht Treaty about the European Union was worked out which stipulated a stagewise formation of a currency economic union.
The first stage actually began in July, 1990 simultaniously with the total currency restrictions abolition regarding the capital flow to EU. The second started in January, 1994 with the beginning of the European Monetary Institute in Frankfurt on the Main consisting of the Central banks managing member countries. The purpose of the European Monetary Institute creation was the preparation for the European System of Central Banks organization and ECU banknote issue. The European Council laid on December, 1995 in Madrid confirmed the decision of the Common European Currency introduction from January, 1999 what became the third concluding stage.
The Council participants decided to refuse the name of «ECU» admitting EURO instead. As envisioned by the Council euro shouldn’t be a parallel national currency like it was ECU but it should become a single and common currency precisely for all the EU members which finally will replace marks, pounds and francs.
The technical transfer stipulated four stages. Till May, 1998 the European Union should decide what countries will constitute the monetary union. Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Spain were included into the first list. The Great Britain and the rest Scandinavian countries joint at the later stage. This group of the 11 above mentioned countries forms the market with the GDP of 6.5 billion USD and with the population more than 280 million people. For comparison: The US GDP is 6.955 billion USD with the population of 263 million people.