On 31 January 1974, the European Commission solemnly calls upon the Heads of State or Government of the Member States of the European Economic Community to foster stronger Community ties and to work together to combat the political and economic crisis affecting the ‘Europe of the Nine'.

In spring 1976, financial crises shake many European countries. The European monetary snake, bogged down in its difficulties, is crippled.

On 8 October 1972, the group of experts appointed by the Committee of Governors of the Central Banks of the EEC Member States, chaired by Mr Théron, publishes its report on the establishment of a European monetary cooperation fund, as provided for in the Werner Report.

Meeting in Paris from 19 to 21 October 1972, the Heads of State or Government of the Communities, newly enlarged to include nine Member States, affirm their intention to transform, before the end of the present decade, the whole complex of their relations into a European Union. They take decisions concerning Economic and Monetary Union, the Monetary Cooperation Fund and regional policy. From left to right: Pierre Werner (Luxembourg Minister of State and President of the Government), Gaston Eyskens (Belgian Prime Minister), Jack Lynch (Irish Prime Minister), Anker Jorgensen (Danish Prime Minister), Willy Brandt (Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany), Barend W. Biesheuvel (Netherlands Prime Minister), Georges Pompidou (President of the French Republic), Edward Heath (British Prime Minister), Giulio Andreotti (Italian Prime Minister) and Sicco Mansholt (President of the Commission of the European Communities).

On 30 October 1974, in the midst of the energy crisis, inflation and international monetary chaos, Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Minister of State, gives an address to the Chamber of Deputies in which he expresses the Luxembourg Government’s concern at the possible repercussions of the crisis on the economic and monetary integration process.

On 21 October 2003, during a lecture on the role and action of Pierre Werner in the establishment of economic and monetary union, Hans Tietmeyer, former deputy in the Werner Group, outlines the historical stages in the monetary integration of Europe.