Acceso usuarios
Ivo Maes
The Werner Report and the Delors Report played a crucial role in the EMU process. The vision of EMU of the two reports differed sig- nificantly. The Werner Report was in favor of an EMU with both a supranational monetary pillar (a European System of Central Banks) and a supranational economic pillar (a decision-making center for economic policy), reflecting the dominating Keynesian paradigm with a belief in discretionary fiscal policy. In the Delors Report the focus was on the monetary pillar (an independent European System of Central Banks), while there was skepticism about discretionary fiscal policy. This reflected a new consensus, as both policymakers and academics had moved away from active demand management policies and were going towards a medium-term orientation, em- phasising structural, supply-side oriented policies. It will be argued that this new consensus facilitated an agreement on EMU. As the perceived room for discretionary economic policies was more lim- ited, it implied a more limited transfer of sovereignty (focused on monetary policy), as envisaged earlier in the Werner Report. Partic- ular attention will be given to one of the background papers of the Delors Report, “The Werner Report Revisited”, by the two rappor- teurs of the Delors Committee, Gunter Baer and Tommaso Padoa- Schioppa.
