61330    The incoming President Santer will aim to complete the economic and monetary union as well as political union, advocated by the Maastricht Treaty, but the road ahead will be rocky for the new administration succeeding Mr. Delors, dubbed the "President of Europe," who has a strong personality and had pushed forward with unification.

61331    The economic and monetary union, which is the highlight of the Maastricht Treaty, is going nowhere.

61332    The European Monetary System (EMS), the foundation of the currency unification, broke down, and Britain and Italy have remained withdrawn from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) since the currency crisis in the fall of 1992.

61333    In the summer of 1993, they were forced to move to the de facto floating exchange rate system.

61334    On top of all that, the deep recession worked against the unification.

61335    According to the Maastricht Treaty, the member states in the monetary union must meet the given economic indicators including budget deficit, outstanding public debt, inflation rate, but among the EU member states only Luxembourg, with a population of 400,000, fulfills the conditions for joining the union.

61336    There has been some talk about the goal of issuing a single currency by the end of this century being "not feasible."

61337    Behind such pessimism, the idea of the two-stage unification is once again being discussed between Germany and Italy.

61338    This method will let Germany, France and the three Benelux countries, where the economic climate is good, to join first, followed by the remaining member states when conditions are met.

61339    Great Britain and Italy are strongly opposing this method since "it will lead to the breakup of Europe."

61340    A full review of the Maastricht Treaty, including the reassessment of the initial setup for the monetary union, is planned in 1996 and maneuvering among member states is expected to intensify around how currency unification is to take place.

61341    Along with the "deepening of unification," the "expansion of unification" is also a challenge for the new administration.

61342    With the end of the Cold War, the European Community, made up of Western European countries, developed into the EU that had the whole of Europe in its horizon.

61343    Neutral states such as Austria, Sweden and Finland have joined in January and the EU membership has ballooned to fifteen countries.

61344    Issues surrounding the admission of countries in Central and Eastern Europe also began to gather steam.