January 2014 marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the European Monetary Institute, the predecessor of the European Central Bank. On 12 February 2014, the European Central Bank and the National Bank of Belgium co-hosted a conference in Brussels to commemorate this key milestone on the way to Economic and Monetary Union. This book, edited by Ivo Maes and Frank Moss brings together the papers presented at the conference which was entitled “Progress through crisis? Conference for the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the European Monetary Institute”. The aim of both the conference and this volume was not only to celebrate the anniversary and honour Alexandre Lamfalussy, the first President of the EMI. It was also intended to draw parallels between how the lessons from the crisis of the 1990s had influenced the progress towards EMU and how the recent euro area crisis was holding lessons for the future functioning of EMU. As such, it offered an occasion to assess how some of the past experiences remained relevant for the future.
CEPS Director Daniel Gros was invited to contribute a chapter, entitled “The EMS crisis of the 1990s: Parallels with the present crisis?” to this collective volume. The full text is also available for free downloading at: www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/progressthroughcrisis201410.en.pdf
