‘Maternity ward. It’s a sort of snake.’ On 6 December 1978, French cartoonist Alain Tredez illustrates how the joint action of French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (on the right) has resulted in the birth of a new European Monetary System (EMS). The EMS is often referred to as the ‘improved snake’, the main change being the creation of the ECU (European Currency Unit). The term ‘snake’ refers to the European monetary snake, created six years earlier by the Basel Agreement of 10 April 1972. This economic mechanism was designed to limit fluctuations in exchange rates between the Member States of the European Economic Community. In the absence of a real monetary union, the snake served for some time as a ‘prop’ for the European currencies, establishing an area of relative stability in a context of international monetary turbulence. But the serious economic problems of 1977 and 1978 would prove too much for the snake, obliging Europe’s leaders to introduce a new European monetary system.