One of my correspondents from outside the EU has asked me what I meant by the 1950s vision of the EU which pervades its thinking.
It’s best summed up by Jacques Rueff, a French economist, when he said in 1950 that “L'Europe se fera par la monnaie ou ne se fera pas”, an early manifestation of the “single currency first” priority.
Of course, single political entities ultimately need a single currency. But it is not necessarily the first building block of a state and those who favour the development of Europe as a quasi-state or political union should have understood this from the history of the United States
