EMU as Europeanization: Convergence, Diversity and Contingency

This article examines the effects of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as a case study of Europeanization of EU Member States. Emphasis is placed on what these effects are, how they take place, and who is affected. The stress is on the diversity of these effects within a framework of powerful systemic pressures for convergence and on the different strategies and constructions placed on EMU by domestic elites. The extent of policy convergence is seen as contingent on the dynamic interactions between ‘top‐down’ and ‘bottom‐up’ aspects of EMU. How EMU affects states is pictured as a combination of ‘thick’ effects (captured by constructivism) and ‘thin’ effects (highlighted by rationalist approaches). The thick effects are confined to a small transnational policy community. But EMU has strengthened the domestic power of actors involved with this community. The article considers the implications for problems of conflict between elite and public discourse about Europe; for a differential Europe; and for the form of relationship amongst European states (semi‐sovereignty and competition for cognitive leadership). A key shift is from adapting to a German monetary hegemony under the ERM to a more open competition for cognitive leadership, offering to small states new scope for influence.