In this interview excerpt, Niels Thygesen, Professor of Economics at the University of Copenhagen from 1964 to 1969 and from 1971 to 2004, Adviser to the Governor of the Danmarks Nationalbank from 1973 to 1983 and a member of the Delors Committee set up to study and propose practical steps that would lead to the gradual establishment of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) from 1988 to 1989, discusses his family background, his childhood in Copenhagen during the Second World War and the impact of the war on Danish society.

In this interview excerpt, Niels Thygesen, Professor of Economics at the University of Copenhagen from 1964 to 1969 and from 1971 to 2004, Adviser to the Governor of the Danmarks Nationalbank from 1973 to 1983 and a member of the Delors Committee set up to study and propose practical steps that would lead to the gradual establishment of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) from 1988 to 1989, describes the main events that marked his university studies in Copenhagen in the 1950s, especially the Budapest crisis in 1956 and the decolonisation movement in Africa. He also mentions his main mentors during his studies, especially Erik Hoffmeyer, Governor of the Danmarks Nationalbank from 1965 to 1994.

In this interview excerpt, Niels Thygesen, an official at the Danish Ministry of Economic Affairs from 1961 to 1964, discusses French President Charles de Gaulle’s rejection of the United Kingdom’s first application for accession to the European Economic Community in 1963. He also explains how Denmark withdrew its own application for accession at that time as it wished to give priority to its relations with the United Kingdom.

In this interview excerpt, Niels Thygesen, Professor of Economics at the University of Copenhagen from 1964 to 1969 and from 1971 to 2004, Adviser to the Governor of the Danmarks Nationalbank from 1973 to 1983 and a member of the Delors Committee set up to study and propose practical steps that would lead to the gradual establishment of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) from 1988 to 1989, discusses the year he spent at Harvard University in 1961. He also describes the interest of academics living in the United States in the development of European integration at that time.