Council Of Ministers

The Council is the principal decision and law making body of the European Union. It is divided into several subject-based councils e.g. the Foreign Affairs Council, ECOFIN, Agriculture. The most important councils meet monthly. National ministers attend their relevant councils and vote upon proposed legislation. Fisheries and agriculture ministers can always be guaranteed to meet until at least 3 a.m.

ECB - European Central Bank And ESCB - European System Of Central Banks

The Maastricht Treaty established that both the European System of Central Banks (ESCB)and the European Central Bank be set up as soon as the decision was taken to proceed to stage III of Economic and Monetary Union. The ECB is now in operation - just a short taxi ride from the mighty Bundesbank in Frankfurt - and will take up the reins on January 1st, with the other banks operating as its agents in the ESCB system. The ECB, which is part of the ESCB, is managed by a Governing Council composed of central bank governors and a president - Wim Duisenberg - who was appointed by the participating member states after consultation with the European Parliament and the Governing Council - and after an almighty row. The ECB will have the exclusive right to authorise the issue of euro bank-notes and coins. In short, these are the people who will control our money and set our interest rates.

ECOFIN - European Council Of Economic And Finance Ministers

The second most important division of the Council of Ministers after the Foreign Affairs Council. It meets on average once a month to discuss the macro economic situation in the member states, co-ordinate the Union's position in international financial institutions and adopt legislation in respect of tax harmonisation, financial liberalisation and the financing of the Union. A sub-group of the so-called ECOFIN - the Euro 11 council- has now been established. This group comprises the finance ministers of the 11 euro zone members and looks set to become an increasingly influential group.

ECU - European Currency Unit

A "basket" of national currencies, each currency's weighting within the basket being fixed as a percentage in line with each country's share of the Union's gross national product and of internal trade. The composition of the ECU was frozen on November 1st, 1993 in connection with the beginning of stage II of Economic and Monetary Union. Currency movements against the dollar are reflected in the central rate of the ECU. The ECU will finally disappear on January 1st when the euro is created - under the rules the ECU will translate one for one with the euro at that time. For a long time it looked like the new single currency would be called the ECU - but the Germans thought it was too French, while the French would not live with euromark.

EIB - European Investment Bank

Set up under Articles 129 - 130 of the Treaty of Rome, the EIB's main role is financing capital investment in the member states and in certain non-member states.

EMI - European Monetary Institute

The EMI was set up at the beginning of Stage II of Economic and Monetary Union on January 1st, 1994. The EMI was the precursor of the European Central Bank, the central institutional feature of Stage III and has now been subsumed into the ECB. The EMI's role was to strengthen both co-operation between central banks and the co-ordination of the monetary policies of member states, to monitor the functioning of the European Monetary System, take over the tasks of the European Monetary Co-operation Fund and to facilitate the use of the ECU and oversee its development.

ERM - Exchange Rate Mechanism

Introduced as part of the European Monetary System (EMS) in 1979, the ERM was devised as a means of minimising currency fluctuations. Each participating currency had a central exchange rate against the ECU, which in turn allowed a system of bilateral central rates to be calculated covering all the participating currencies. Each currency was allowed to fluctuate against the others by an agreed margin around these bilateral central rates; if it approached its top or bottom limit, a "divergence indicator" was triggered. The existing ERM will be abolished as the euro is created, but a new ERM - ERM 2 - will be created, allowing states staying outside EMU to limit the divergence of their currencies against the euro.

European Council

Name given to the regular meetings - known as "summits" of the heads of state or of government of the member states of the EU and the president of the European Commission. Dominated for years by the formidable presence of Helmut Kohl, it remains to be seen if Oskar Lafontaine can carry the same weight - politically, that is.

Useful Websites

The Irish Times

http:/www.irish-times.com/ The Irish Times website includes a special European section at www.irish-times.com/eurotimes. This includes regularly updated news on all aspects of the euro and the EU, special features and links to a range of sites offering extensive euro information for business.

PriceWaterHouseCoopers

http:/www.pwcglobal.com/

Euro Changeover Board Of Ireland

http:/www.irlgov.ie/ecbi-euro

Department Of Finance

http:/www.irlgov.ie/finance/indexemu.htm

Central Bank Of Ireland

http:/www.centralbank.ie

Forfas

http://www.emuaware.forfas.ie/

Revenue Commissioners

http:/www.revenue.ie

Enterprise Ireland

http:/www.irish-trade.ie/eic

IBEC

http://www.ibec.ie/euro/

Independent Guide To EMU

http://www.euro-emu.co.uk - this site has a discussion list

EU Site

http://europa.eu.int/eurobirth - where official rates will be published

Eurobarometer

http://www.europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg10/infcom/epo/eb.html

EMU Statistics From 1/1/1999

(http://europa.eu.int/eurostat.html).

Euro Commerce

www.eurocommerce.be

British Government

www.euro.gov.uk

Association For Monetary Union In Europe

http://www.amue.org

General EU Site

http://www.pitt.edu/wesnews/EU-BIB-W7.htm

Bank Of England

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publica.htm - quarterly bulletins - you can be put on their mailing list

The Financial Times EMU Site

(includes many good links, although you must first register (free) at http://www.ft.com) http://www.ft.com/hippocampus/tpsemu.htm

European Union

http://www.europa.eu.int/euro/