Hamburg's trade has profited from the dynamic effects of the European Common Market. In the following interview Dr Fahning, Director of the Hamburgische Landesbank-Girozentrale, gives his views on the importance of the EEC enlargement for the Hanseatic City.

A European Monetary Union (EMU) and the complete transfer of the responsibility for monetary policy to a European central bank are no longer utopian ideas, but a politically highly relevant possibility. The question how economic policy goals can be achieved within such a monetary union is...