196 COMPARATIVE POLITICAL STUDIES /April 1996 Although virtually everyone in the EU,then,gives lip service to the desirability of stable currency values,only in some countries and only at some times has rhetoric been backed up by the national sacrifices necessary to implement a stable exchange rate against the DM.The course of European monetary politics since the late 1960s illustrates this fact. Although stable exchange rates were a goal of the EU from its beginning, serious discussion of the matter began only once fissures appeared in the Bretton Woods system.Early talks led to the 1969 Werner Report,which recommended beginning a process of monetary union among EU members (Tsoukalis,1977,pp.51-111;van Ypersele,1985,pp.31-45).These recom- mendations were superseded by the end of the Bretton Woods regime.Over the course of the year that followed the August 1971 American decision to go off gold,EU member states established the snake,an arrangement to hold their currencies within a 2.25%band against each other.In addition to the original six,Great Britain,Ireland,and Denmark joined the snake on May 1, 1972,to prepare for their entry into the European Community 8 months later. Yet the goal of stabilizing EU currencies proved impossible to achieve.3 Britain and Ireland left the snake in June 1972,just weeks after joining;the Danes left shortly thereafter but rejoined in October.In February 1973,Italy withdrew from the arrangement.In addition,throughout 1973,only a series of parity changes allowed the system to hold together,and even then France chose to exit in January 1974.The French returned in July 1975,only to leave for good 8 months later. Within 3 years of its founding,then,the only EU members still in the snake were Germany,the Benelux countries,and Denmark.Even within this narrowed arrangement,realignments were frequent,typically to devalue the Danish krone and/or revalue the DM.Norway affiliated with the snake from May 1972 until December 1978,and Sweden from March 1973 to August 1977,even though the two were not EU members.Austria and Switzerland, also not EU members,had their currencies shadow the DM informally but did not join the snake. In the late 1970s,discussions of EU monetary integration began to gather momentum again,and in March 1979,the EMS and its exchange rate mech- anism went into effect.All EU members except the United Kingdom acceded to the ERM,which allowed a 2.25%band among currencies(6%for the lira). 3.Tsoukalis(197),p.112168:Ludlow(1982),pp.1-36:Coffey(1987),pp.616.A useful chronology of the snake is in Coffey,pp.123-125. 4.Ludlow (1982)is especially detailed on the negotiations and early operation of the EMS; see also van Ypersele (1985),pp.71-95;and Ungerer (1983).Excellent surveys of the EMS experience more generally are Giavazzi and Giovannini(1989);Fratianni and von Hagen(1991); Goodman(1992);and the articles in Eichengreen and Frieden (1994b)