The process of european monetary integration: a comparison of the belgian and italian approaches

his paper analyses the roles which Belgium and Italy have played in the process ofEuropean monetary integration. It focusses on Belgian and Italian attitudes towards European integration and EMU, exchange rate policies, key concepts of the EMU strategies and concrete contributions. Overall, Belgium and Italy played an important and pace-setting role in the process of European monetary integration. The main difference is that Belgium has been a constant and consistent "pace-setter" inmonetary matters, whereas Italy was mainly active in the 1980s. Furthermore, the paper shows how important it was for a country to achieve a sound economic performance, especially a stable exchange rate, in order to have influence on theEuropean monetary scene.