The Bundesbank: a model for the European Central Bank?

Abstract

As a common European institute of the monetary issue, the European Central Bank, will have to emerge as a new entity within the European Community. In particular, the bank will be the ultimate target of an European Monetary Union and seems to be so acknowledged by a clear majority of European Community governments. Starting from the creation of the Bundesbank, the thesis goes on with the situation of the Bundesbank in the European Monetary System and the European Monetary Union. Then the German economic, social and monetary union is covered. The European Central Bank's organization is analyzed and compared with that of the Bundesbank. The constitutions of both the European Central Bank and the Bundesbank spell out the principal objective as monetary policy. A future central bank for a common European currency will look much like the Bundesbank, following its model of Independence from government, and it has many similarities in administrative structure.