International Agreements of The Eu in The Field of EMU

AbstractThis chapter is concerned with international agreements of the European Union (EU) in the field of Economic Monetary Union (EMU) (which for simplicity will be referred to as ‘external EMU agreements’). What treaty-making competence does the EU have in this field, how are such external agreements negotiated and concluded, and what types of agreement does the EU conclude? The focus of this chapter is thus a specific aspect of the external relations of the EU as regards EMU. And whereas the external policy-making within (formal and informal) international financial institutions, which was discussed in the previous chapter, ranges across a multiplicity of EU policy fields and competences, EMU-related treaty-making practice relates more specifically to the use of the euro as a common currency. And whereas economic policy is still primarily a Member State competence subject to EU-level coordination, monetary policy, with which these agreements are concerned, is an exclusive EU competence by virtue of Article 3(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).