Economic and monetary affairs

Economic and monetary union (EMU) refers to the close coordination of the economic policies of the Member States at European level, with 18 European Union (EU) countries having gone further in adopting the euro as their currency. Under this policy, Member States are committed to avoid excessive budget deficits (‘Stability and Growth Pact’). The relevant background to EMU can be found in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Title VIII on economic and monetary policy).

In response to the 2008 sovereign debt crisis, economic and fiscal governance across the EU has been substantially reinforced, particularly in the euro area.

• Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
  • Euro area
    • Accreditation procedures for manufacturers of euro-secure items and euro items
    • Strengthening economic and monetary union
    • Recent initiatives to strengthen economic and monetary union
    • Implementation of the Eurosystem monetary policy framework
    • Greater fiscal coordination for the euro area
    • Euro area economic policy recommendations for 2016-2017
    • EU economic and monetary union
  • The euro
    • 2009 Annual Statement on the Euro Area
    • The euro - Europe’s common currency
    • Cross-border transportation of euro cash by road
    • Adopting the euro — The euro in practice
      • Conversion rates between national currencies and the euro
      • Issue of euro coins
      • Exchange rate mechanism between the euro and other participating national currencies
      • Euro adoption
    • Convergence Reports — progress of non-euro area countries on meeting euro adoption criteria
      • Convergence report 2018
      • Convergence Report 2020 of the European Commission
  • Economic and monetary union (EMU) — key institutions
    • Council of the European Union – role in EMU
      • Economic and Financial Committee
      • The EU’s Economic Policy Committee
    • Eurogroup (meetings of the euro area finance ministers)
      • The Euro Group
    • European Commission – role in EMU
      • The role of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs — DG ECFIN
    • European Central Bank (ECB) – role in EMU
      • European Central Bank economic and monetary data gathering
      • The European Central Bank (ECB)
      • Statistics on the money markets
      • Terms and conditions for European Anti-Fraud Office investigations of the European Central Bank
      • Voting arrangements in the ECB's Governing Council
      • Minimum reserves
      • European Central Bank — Close cooperation within the Single Supervisory Mechanism with non-euro EU countries
  • Counterfeiting, fraud & the euro
    • Combating counterfeiting of the euro (Pericles 2020)
    • Combating counterfeiting of the euro (Pericles IV)
    • Counterfeiting & fraud – Europol & European Central Bank agreement
    • Copyright protection of the design for the common face of euro coins
    • Criminal penalties for currency counterfeiting
    • Euro authenticity checks
    • Medals and tokens similar to euro coins
    • Non-cash payments — combating fraud and counterfeiting
    • Protecting the euro against counterfeiting — European Technical and Scientific Centre
    • Protecting the euro against counterfeiting – Europol
    • Protection of the euro against counterfeiting
    • System for protecting the euro against counterfeiting
  • The euro as a world currency
    • Exchange rate matters and monetary agreements with the euro area
• EU economic governance
  • Stability and Growth Pact
    • Surveillance of budgetary policies
    • The corrective arm: the excessive deficit procedure
    • European Council resolution on economic policy coordination
    • Reporting of EU countries' actual and planned deficits
    • Requirements for Euro area countries’ budgets
    • Stability and Growth Pact enforcement
    • Economic surveillance of eurozone countries in budgetary difficulties
    • Fiscal surveillance and excessive deficit correction in the euro area
    • Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (also known as the fiscal compact)
    • Flexibility of the SGP rules: strengthening the link between investment, structural reforms and fiscal responsibility
    • Economic governance rules introduced after the financial and economic crisis — a review
    • Broad economic policy guidelines for EU countries
    • Money market funds
    • Recent initiatives to strengthen economic and monetary union
    • 2018 European Semester — Country-specific recommendations
    • 2020 European semester: country-specific recommendations
  • Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure
    • Prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances in the EU
  • Economic forecasts
    • European economic forecasts
• The EU as borrower
  • European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM)
    • European financial stabilisation mechanism
  • Financial assistance in EU countries
    • Brexit adjustment reserve
    • Sovereign debt crisis — EU financial assistance to countries in difficulties
    • Financial assistance to Spain
    • Financial assistance to Latvia
    • Financial assistance in Portugal
    • Financial assistance to Ireland
    • Financial assistance to Hungary
    • Financial assistance to Greece
    • Financial assistance to Cyprus
  • Macro-financial assistance to non-EU countries
    • Macro-financial assistance to enlargement and neighbourhood partners in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic
    • Macro-financial assistance to Ukraine
• Investment and financing
  • An investment plan for Europe
  • Targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTROs)
  • Screening framework for foreign direct investments
  • National promotional banks and the investment plan for Europe
  • InvestEU Programme (2021-2027)
  • Funding long-term investment in the EU’s economy
  • EU Technical Support Instrument (2021-2027)
  • EU Recovery and Resilience Facility
  • EU Recovery Instrument NextGenerationEU
  • Brexit adjustment reserve
  • Assessing environmentally sustainable investments
  • Coordination with the EIB group and the EBRD
    • European Fund for Strategic Investments
    • Finance for innovation and enterprise (European Investment Fund)
• Banking and financial services
  • Capital Markets Union
    • A single EU market for capital to boost jobs and growth
    • Covered bonds and covered bond public supervision
    • Capital Markets Union Action Plan
  • Financial supervision and risk management
    • Sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector
    • Banking Union
      • Single supervisory mechanism framework regulation
    • Supervision of financial institutions
      • Credit rating agencies
      • Supervision of financial conglomerates
      • Reporting of supervisory financial information
      • European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)
      • European Systemic Risk Board
      • European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)
      • European Banking Authority (EBA)
      • European Banking Committee
      • ECB Banking Supervision
        • European Central Bank — Close cooperation within the Single Supervisory Mechanism with non-euro EU countries
        • Systemically important payment systems (SIPS)
        • Supervising banks' health: ECB accountability and transparency
        • Single supervisory mechanism framework regulation
        • The European Central Bank’s role in supervising banks
        • The European Central Bank (ECB)
        • Powers of the ECB to impose sanctions
        • Failing banks and investment firms: rules and procedures
        • Eurosystem procurement framework
    • Managing risks to banks and financial institutions
      • Addressing troubled financial institutions’ problems
      • State aid: European Union financial crisis rules for banks
      • Reorganisation and winding-up of credit institutions
      • Prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms
      • Liquidity coverage requirement for credit institutions
      • Failing banks and investment firms: rules and procedures
      • EU notification procedure for UCITS
      • Establishing bank resolution funds
      • Deposit guarantee schemes
      • Crisis management in the financial sector
      • Banks and investment firms – prudential supervision
  • Consumer finance and payments
    • Consumer finance
      • Buying residential immovable property – rules on loans
      • Opening/switching bank accounts and information on fees
      • Key information about investment products
      • Deposit guarantee schemes
      • Consumer credit agreements
    • Payment services
      • Cross-border payments in the EU
      • Single Euro Payments Area Regulation
      • Revised rules for payment services in the EU
      • Fees for card-based payments
      • Electronic money: business and prudential supervision
      • ECB Guideline on TARGET2
  • Financial markets, financial instruments
    • Securities markets
      • Admission of securities to official stock-exchange listing and information to be published on those securities
      • Transparent securities financing transactions
      • Simpler, more transparent and more standardised securitisation
      • Short selling of securities
      • Preventing market abuse in financial markets
      • Protecting investors when an investment firm fails
      • Prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market
      • Markets in financial instruments regulation (MiFIR)
      • Issuers of securities - more transparent information
      • Criminal sanctions for market abuse
      • Better regulated and transparent financial markets
    • Investment funds
      • Cross-border distribution of collective investment undertakings
      • UCITS: organisational requirements and rules of conduct
      • Strengthening the global competitiveness of EU investment funds
      • Rules on the obligations of depositaries for EU investment funds
      • Key information about investment products
      • Fund mergers and master-feeder structures relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS)
      • Hedge funds and private equity funds — rules for managers
      • European venture capital funds
      • European social entrepreneurship funds
      • European crowdfunding service providers for business
      • Ensuring accuracy and integrity of benchmarks
    • Post-trade services
      • EU rules on over-the-counter derivatives contracts, central counterparties and trade repositories
      • Settlement finality in payment and securities settlement systems
      • Recovery and resolution of central counterparties
      • Financial collateral arrangements - improving legal clarity
      • Improving securities settlement in the EU
  • Capital movements
    • Effects of foreign legislation on the EU’s financial interests
    • Purchasing property in other EU countries
    • Free movement of capital in the EU
  • Insurance and pensions
    • Civil liability insurance for motor vehicles
    • Export credit insurance
    • Insurance and reinsurance
    • Insurance and occupational pensions: advisory committee
    • Disaster insurance
  • Company reporting and auditing
    • Accounting documents of branches of foreign credit and financial institutions
    • The statutory audit — ensuring accurate company financial statements
    • Rules for statutory audit of public-interest entities
    • International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs)
    • International accounting standards adopted within the European Union
    • Insurance companies: annual accounts
    • Disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by large companies and groups
    • Annual accounts of banks and other financial institutions
• European statistics
  • Statistics on the money markets
  • Eurostat
    • Collection of quarterly non-financial statistics for government by EU countries
    • Short-term statistics
    • Statistics on holdings of securities
    • Statistical classification of products by activity
    • Statistical classification of economic activities
    • Purchasing power parities
    • Harmonising gross national income statistics at European Union level
    • Harmonised measurement of inflation across the EU
    • European Union system of national and regional accounts
    • European statistics on persons and households
    • EU statistics of goods transport by inland waterways
    • EU statistics — balance of payments, trade in services and foreign direct investment
    • EU production system — statistical units
    • EU countries’ quarterly non-financial accounts by institutional sector
    • EU countries’ quarterly financial statistics for general government
    • Data on quarterly government debt
    • Comparable EU-wide statistics on economic activities
  • Other statistics
    • Reporting of EU countries' actual and planned deficits
• Archived summaries
  • 2007 Annual Statement on the Euro Area
  • The introduction of the euro in Slovakia (2009)
  • The introduction of euro banknotes and coins: one year on
  • The impact on Community policies, institutions and legislation
  • Sweden: Convergence reports (2002 - 2004 - 2006)
  • United Kingdom: EMU opt-out clause
  • Survey on industrial production
  • Slovenia authorised to join the euro zone (2007)
  • The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – Economic and monetary affairs
  • Slovenia
  • Turkey - Economic and Monetary Policy
  • Slovakia
  • Streamlining of annual economic and employment policy coordination cycles
  • The European economy: 2006 review - strengthening the euro area
  • The European economy: 2004 Review
  • The euro area in the world economy - Developments in the first three years
  • Transition to the euro: banking charges for conversion, dual display of prices
  • The euro and the international economy
  • Towards adoption of the euro in 2008: Cyprus and Malta
  • Towards a single currency: a brief history of EMU
  • The Czech Republic
  • The successful introduction of the euro in Slovenia
  • The second stage of the EMU
  • The role of the Alert Mechanism Report (AMR)
  • The OECD and the examination of EC economic policies
  • Romania
  • Revising the Stability and Growth Pact: Public Finances in EMU 2006
  • Review of the introduction of euro notes and coins
  • Reviewing euro area countries’ draft budgetary plans for 2015
  • Prohibition of privileged access to financial institutions
  • Progressive convergence during stage one of EMU
  • Resolution of the Amsterdam European Council on the stability and growth pact
  • Public finances in Member States in 2005
  • Public finances in Member States in 2004
  • Reinforcing economic policy coordination
  • Preparations for public administrations
  • Reference scenario: Madrid European Council
  • Practical aspects of the introduction of the euro: review of the situation
  • Recommendations for future changeovers to the euro
  • Prospectus to be published when securities are issued
  • Prohibition on the central banks granting credit facilities to public authorities and undertakings
  • Poland
  • Intrastat: statistics relating to the trading of goods between EU countries
  • Non-cash payments — combating fraud and counterfeiting
  • Lithuania
  • National sides and issuance of euro coins
  • Legal certainty: conversion rates and rounding rules
  • Latvia
  • Malta
  • Long-term sustainability of public finances in the EU
  • Information strategy for the euro
  • Information and communication strategy on the euro and EMU
  • Financial assistance to Romania
  • Guarantee Fund for external actions
  • Green Paper on the practical arrangements for the introduction of the single currency
  • Impact on capital markets
  • Identification of the Member States participating in the third stage of EMU (1999)
  • Iceland - Economic and Monetary Policy
  • Greece's membership in the single currency
  • Hungary
  • Five years of Euro banknotes and coins
  • European Council Resolution on the new exchange-rate mechanism
  • Euro information strategy: final stages of implementing EMU
  • Euro coins for circulation — clarification of rules
  • Euro banknotes: denominations, specifications, reproduction, exchange and withdrawal
  • EU programme to support financial reporting and auditing
  • EU macro-financial assistance to non-EU countries in 2016
  • EU guarantee for European Investment Bank projects outside the EU
  • EU annual growth survey 2015
  • Estonia
  • Enlargement, two years after - an economic success
  • Ensuring the effectiveness of the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact: Public Finances in EMU - 2007
  • Enlargement of the euro area after 1 May 2004
  • EMU 10: successes and challenges after 10 years of Economic and Monetary Union
  • Economic convergence conditions for joining the Euro - Convergence Report 2014
  • Economic and Financial Committee
  • Denominations and technical specifications of Euro coins
  • Denmark : EMU opt-out clause
  • Cross-border payments in euros
  • Cyprus
  • Croatia – Economic and monetary affairs
  • Convergence in the European Union in 1997
  • Convergence in the European Union in 1996
  • Conditions for joining the euro (convergence criteria)
  • Common guidelines: the national sides of euro coins
  • A European Economic Recovery Plan
  • Accession by Estonia to the euro (2011)
  • Accession of Cyprus and Malta to euro area (2008)
  • Addressing the EU’s job concerns in 2015
  • Agreements concerning the French territorial communities
  • Agreements on exchange-rate matters (Cape Verde, the CFA area and the Comores)
  • Agreements on monetary relations (Monaco, San Marino, the Vatican and Andorra)
  • Bank dividend policy – ECB recommendation
  • Broad economic policy guidelines (2000)
  • Broad economic policy guidelines (2001)
  • Broad economic policy guidelines (1999)
  • Broad economic policy guidelines (2002)
  • Broad economic policy guidelines 2003-2005
  • Broad economic policy guidelines (2005- 2008)
  • Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (2008- 2010)
  • Broad guidelines for economic policies
  • Broad economic policy guidelines (1996)
  • Broad economic policy guidelines (1997)
  • Broad economic policy guidelines (1998)
  • Changes to the national sides of euro coins
  • Bulgaria