The EURECON project (‘The Making of a Lopsided Union: Economic Integration in the European Economic Community, 1957-1992') was directed by Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, supported by the European Research Council (ERC, under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement n°716849), and based at the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre when it concluded in 2023.

The EURECON collection contains material related to
(1) Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol's book "Missed at Maastricht: How Europe Shelved Economic Union in the Making of the Euro" (Cornell University Press, 2026) and
(2) the proposals related to the making of 'economic union' from the perspective of the creation of European monetary union between 1957 and 1992 identified in the course of the project.

The stabilisation of currency relations remained a primary policy focus until the 1992 decision to create the euro, but it always cohabited with proposals to develop economic integration as a means to improve the functioning of the EEC as a possible currency area.

The aim of the database is to provide a source for discussion and debate about the substance of the paths not taken in the history of European cooperation and integration as well as the actors that supported these ideas. The database provides researchers with access to the details of each proposal as well as the original archival reference found in the course of the EURECON project. This will allow to then further contextualise European policymakers’ reflections in a wider web of exchanges and influences going beyond the hybrid EEC institutional structure.

The proposals in the EURECON database focus specifically on the fields of macroeconomic policy coordination, fiscal transfers and banking regulation/supervision. An additional general category in the database include proposals that covered more than one of these policy fields. A proposal is constituted by a specific reflection put forward in the institutional decision-making process in the EEC both at the intergovernmental level and within supranational institutions. Proposals can take various forms, from a full-fledged paper outlining a specific scheme to a cursory description of a possible policy change.

Quotation: Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, EURECON Project, consulted on [day/month/year] at HAEU, EURECON .

The documents have been organized by thematic series to facilitate research but do not reflect their origin.

English, French, German

Electronic File, Textual

Historical Archives of the European Union
Historical Archives of the European Commission
Bundesarchiv Koblenz
Fondation Jean Monnet pour l'Europe
The National Archives
Archives historiques de la banque de France
Nationaal Archief
Centre des Archives économiques et financières
European Central Bank Archives
Bank of England Archives
London School of Economics Archives
Archives of the National Bank of Belgium