‘At his dinner with Schmidt … Giscard finds himself struggling with the monetary snake.’ On 28 June 1978, Spanish-born cartoonist Vazquez de Sola paints an ironic picture of the plan by French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to create a new European monetary system open to all the Community Member States. After the failure of the European monetary snake, Europe’s leaders are seeking a new approach to guarantee the stability of their currencies.