European Monetary System, arrangement by which most nations of the European Union (EU) linked their currencies to forestall massive fluctuations relative to 1 another. It was organized in 1979 to stabilize overseas trade and counter inflation among members. The European Currency Unit (ECU), which additionally was established in 1979, was the forerunner of the euro. Derived from a basket of various amounts of the currencies of the EU nations, the ECU was a unit of accounting used to determine trade rates among the many national currencies. Periodic adjustments raised the values of sturdy currencies and lowered these of weaker ones, however after 1986 changes in national rates of interest had been used to keep the currencies inside a slender range. In the early Nineteen Nineties the European Monetary System was strained by the differing economic insurance policies and conditions of its members, especially the newly reunified Germany, and Britain completely …