20 years after Maastricht, European Union in quest for new Big Idea
20 years after Maastricht, European Union in quest for new Big Idea Twenty years on from the Maastricht Treaty that led to the euro, the European Union's quest for an "ever-closer union" rings increasingly hollow to citizens worn down by the debt crisis. Maastricht came into force on November 1, 1993, committing member states to an ambitious program of closer political and economic cooperation, all coordinated in Brussels and ultimately leading to the single currency, launched in 1999. This "great leap forward" to monetary union was on a different scale from anything before and since but analysts say it was incomplete, without the necessary elements to ensure that the rules were followed by all. Maastricht notably set limits for national budget deficits -- the shortfall between government spending and revenue -- at three percent of Gross Domestic Product, and at 60 percent for total debt. But dangerously, the rules were only half-heartedly enfor...