The European Commission (Commission) has published a roadmap for deepening the Economic and Monetary Union, including concrete steps to be taken over the next 18 months. The overall aim of the roadmap is to enhance the unity, efficiency and the democratic accountability of Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union by 2025. In addition to the roadmap, the Commission published a package with four main initiatives:

• a proposal to establish a European Monetary Fund (EMF), anchored within the EU’s legal framework and built on the structure of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The European Parliament and the Council of the EU are invited to adopt this proposal by mid-2019;
• a proposal to integrate the substance of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance into the Union legal framework. The European Parliament and the Council are invited to adopt this proposal by mid-2019;
• a Communication on new budgetary instruments for a stable euro area within the Union framework setting out a vision of how certain budgetary functions essential for the euro area and the EU as a whole can be developed within the framework of the EU’s public finances. The European Parliament and the Council are invited to adopt these latter two proposals in 2018; and
• a Communication spelling out the possible functions of a European Minister of Economy and Finance who could serve as Vice-President of the Commission and chair the Euro Group. Reaching a common understanding on the role of the Minister by mid-2019 would allow setting it up as part of the formation of the next Commission.

View European Commission roadmap on completing economic and monetary union: financial services aspects, 6 December 2017