The Governor highlights a number of difficulties that will be encountered in any approach to economic and monetary union in Europe. He argues that the United Kingdom's 'Hard Ecu' proposals would offer a coherent way of addressing these difficulties, without prejudging the eventual destination of the process. They provide for institutional development but avoid the risks of premature locking of parities; they would promote greater economic convergence, which is an essential condition for monetary union; and they allow the establishment of a common Community currency which could become a single currency for Europe if in due course that was the wish of peoples and governments.
Approaches to monetary integration in Europe - Governor's speech