Editing European Union (section)

===Economic and monetary union===
{{Main|Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union}}
{{Euro accession map}}

The [[euro]] is the official currency in 20 member states of the EU. The creation of a [[European Currency Unit|European single currency]] became an official objective of the European Economic Community in 1969. In 1992, having negotiated the structure and procedures of a currency union, the member states signed the [[Maastricht Treaty]] and were legally bound to fulfil the agreed-on rules including the [[Euro convergence criteria|convergence criteria]] if they wanted to join the [[Currency union|monetary union]]. The states wanting to participate had first to join the [[European Exchange Rate Mechanism]]. To prevent the joining states from getting into financial trouble or crisis after entering the monetary union, they were obliged in the Maastricht treaty to fulfil important financial obligations and procedures, especially to show budgetary discipline and a high degree of sustainable economic convergence, as well as to avoid excessive government deficits and limit the government debt to a sustainable level, as agreed in the [[European Fiscal Pact]].

====Capital Markets Union and financial institutions====
{{Main|Capital Markets Union|European System of Financial Supervision|European Stability Mechanism}}

{{See also|European Banking Authority|European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority|European Securities and Markets Authority|Single Resolution Board}}<!-- Capital Markets Union -->
Free movement of capital is intended to permit movement of investments such as property purchases and buying of shares between countries.<ref name="Europa Single Market C">{{Cite web |last=European Commission |title=A Single Market for Capital |url=http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/top_layer/index_42_en.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518000627/http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/top_layer/index_42_en.htm |archive-date=18 May 2007 |access-date=27 June 2007 |publisher=Europa web portal}}</ref> Until the drive towards [[economic and monetary union]] the development of the capital provisions had been slow. Post-Maastricht there has been a rapidly developing corpus of ECJ judgements regarding this initially neglected freedom. The free movement of capital is unique insofar as it is granted equally to non-member states.

<!-- European System of Financial Supervision -->
The [[European System of Financial Supervision]] is an institutional architecture of the EU's framework of financial supervision composed by three authorities: the [[European Banking Authority]], the [[European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority]] and the [[European Securities and Markets Authority]]. To complement this framework, there is also a [[European Systemic Risk Board]] under the responsibility of the central bank. The aim of this financial control system is to ensure the economic stability of the EU.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 September 2010 |title=Europe seals deal on financial supervision |url=http://euobserver.com/?aid=30866 |website=euobserver.com}}</ref>

====Eurozone and banking union====
{{Main|Euro|Eurozone|European banking union}}
{{See also|Eurosystem|Eurogroup}}
{{multiple image
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| image1            = Euro banknotes Europa series.png
| width1            = 160
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| caption1          = [[Euro banknotes]] from the Europa series (since 2013)
| image2            = Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland (Unsplash).jpg
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| caption2          = [[European Central Bank]] in [[Frankfurt]], Germany
}}

In 1999, the currency union started to materialise through introducing a common accounting (virtual) currency in [[History of the euro|eleven of the member states]]. In 2002, it was turned into a fully-fledged conventible currency, when [[euro banknotes|euro notes]] and coins were issued, while the phaseout of national currencies in the eurozone (consisting by then of 12 member states) was initiated. The eurozone (constituted by the EU member states which have adopted the euro) has since grown to 20 countries.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kuchler |first=Teresa |date=25 October 2006 |title=Almunia says 'undesirable' to act on Sweden's euro refusal |publisher=EUobserver.com |url=http://euobserver.com/9/22733 |access-date=26 December 2006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=20 March 2009 |title=ERM II |url=http://uk.fm.dk/Portfolio/International%20cooperation/EU%20economic%20and%20political%20coordination/ERM2.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503183816/http://uk.fm.dk/Portfolio/International%20cooperation/EU%20economic%20and%20political%20coordination/ERM2.aspx |archive-date=3 May 2011 |access-date=26 December 2009 |publisher=Danish Finance Ministry}}</ref>

The 20 EU member states known collectively as the [[eurozone]] have fully implemented the currency union by superseding their national currencies with the [[euro]]. The currency union represents 345{{nbsp}}million EU citizens.<ref name="Europa Single Market" /> The euro is the second largest [[reserve currency]] as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the [[United States dollar]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 December 2007 |title=Triennial Central Bank Survey 2007 |url=http://www.bis.org/publ/rpfxf07t.pdf |access-date=25 July 2009 |publisher=BIS}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Aristovnik |first1=Aleksander |last2=Čeč |first2=Tanja |date=30 March 2010 |title=Compositional Analysis of Foreign Currency Reserves in the 1999–2007 Period. The Euro vs. The Dollar As Leading Reserve Currency |url=http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14350/1/MPRA_paper_14350.pdf |access-date=27 December 2010 |publisher=Munich Personal RePEc Archive, Paper No. 14350}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Boesler |first=Matthew |date=11 November 2013 |title=There Are Only Two Real Threats To The US Dollar's Status As The International Reserve Currency |work=Business Insider |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/dollar-as-international-reserve-currency-2013-11 |access-date=8 December 2013}}</ref>

The euro, and the monetary policies of those who have adopted it in agreement with the EU, are under the control of the ECB.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ECB, ESCB and the Eurosystem |url=http://www.ecb.int/ecb/orga/escb/html/index.en.html |access-date=15 September 2007 |publisher=European Central Bank}}</ref> The ECB is the central bank for the eurozone, and thus controls [[monetary policy]] in that area with an agenda to maintain [[price stability]]. It is at the centre of the [[Eurosystem]], which comprehends all the eurozone national central banks.<ref name="ECB org">{{Cite web |title=ECB, ESCB and the Eurosystem |url=http://www.ecb.int/ecb/orga/escb/html/index.en.html |access-date=7 July 2011 |publisher=European Central Bank}}</ref> The ECB is also the central institution of the [[Banking Union]] established within the eurozone, as the hub of [[European Banking Supervision]]. There is also a [[Single Resolution Mechanism]] in case of a bank default.