[...]... in the stardingly apt wordplays in the two languages, have given a central role 3 THE ROTTEN HEART OF EUROPE to an extraordinary institution, one in which politics and monetary economics successively ally and conflict with each other - the Bundesbank For the French elite, money is not the lubricant of the economy but the most important lever of power Capture of the Bundesbank is thus, for them, the. .. 1978, the political geography of Europe had been frozen for three decades Another decade was to pass before the Yalta settlement crumbled But the monetary geography of the Western part of the Continent already reflected the breakdown, at the beginning of the decade, of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates among the non-communist industrial countries With the United States no longer the monetary... credos come together [in many respects including their belief in 1the inevitable withering-away of the nation-state Initiates in the secrets of History, the two schools are equally convinced that they know where History is leadingtowards the Promised Land For the first, its name is the classless society, for the second, it is Europe without borders The techniques and modes of thought of twentieth-century... mechanism The politics and economics of the ERM have interacted with the personal quirks and motivations of its managers in a dirty war for the control of Europe's money In the recurring patterns of history, the battleground today looks very much like that of 1978 - a salient here, a hill retaken there, but the main trenches are where they were seventeen years ago One might say they remain where they have... citizens of the European countries to the will of political and bureaucratic elites whose power-lust, cynicism and delusions underlie the actions of the vast majority of those who now strive to create a European superstate The ERM has been their chosen instrument, and they have used it cleverly The first part of this book analyses the history of the ERM from its inception to the signing of the Maastricht... and Foreign Exchange Policy SubCommittees of the Committee of Central Bank Governors of the European Communities, from the OECO's Ad Hoc Group of High Level Monetary Experts, and from the EC - EFT A Economic Council Years of discussion, debate and argument with them, much of it over glasses of beer, have sharpened and solidified my understanding of the issues involved in what I have called the dirty war. .. work on the broad architecture of the new 7 In principle, the Community institution responsible for overseeing the process of economic integration and for considering measures thought likely to advance that process was the Council of Ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin) In the monetary field, the Ecofin was advised by the so-called 'competent bodies', the Monetary Committee and the Committee... the Monetary Committee and the Committee of Central Bank Governors The membership of the second of these bodies reflected its name The first was made up of the top Treasury official (or the top official on the international side) from each country and the deputy governor (or equivalent) of each centtal bank, together with two representatives from the Commission The Bundesbank thus had a say in both Committees... in meetings of the 'competent bodies' dealing with the operation of the system II THE ROTTEN HEART OF EUROPE Politically, however, things were very different For Jack Lynch, the Irish Prime Minister, the ERM offered an opportunity for a final, symbolic shaking-off of British influence Community membership had in itself increased Ireland's national self-confidence, since it put the country, formally speaking... after the war, the then new Christian Democratic party had seemed the only bulwark against the risk of a Communist takeover Once in power, however, it took such a tight grip on the reigns of power and patronage that it exercised what seemed a perpetual domination of Italian political life, despite the giddying speed of the revolving doors to the prime ministerial palace In the late 1970s, the rottenness . the forbearance of Faberand Faber and the lack of forbearance shown by my former employer, the Kuropean Commission. The role of my publisher is straightforward enough~ but the. The book was, so the Commission said, a synthesis of the economic analysis I had been doing for several years as the senior official responsible for analysing - and to anyone with the. apparatchiks, the other its Eurocrats Their respective credos come together [in many respects including their belief in 1 the inevitable withering-away of the nation-state Initiates in the secrets