Unhappy Union

Timeline

February 1992	Maastricht treaty signed
June 1992	Denmark says no
September 1992	ERM crisis, UK pound and Italian lira out
May 1993	Danes say yes with opt-outs
October 1993	Maastricht treaty ratified
June 1997	Stability and Growth Pact signed
January 1999	EMU begins with 11 countries
January 2001	Greece joins EMU
January 2002	Euro notes and coins introduced
November 2003	Germany and France breach stability pact. Jean-Claude Trichet becomes ECB president
August 2007	ECB liquidity injection begins
September 2008	Lehman Brothers collapses
January 2009	Greece downgraded
November 2009	New Greek government admits to bigger budget deficit
May 2010	First Greek bail-out
October 2010	Deauville deal on private-sector involvement
November 2010	Irish bail-out
May 2011	Portuguese bail-out
July 2011	Second Greek bail-out
August 2011	ECB buys Italian and Spanish bonds
October 2011	Haircut on Greek debt
November 2011	George Papandreou and Silvio Berlusconi forced out of office in Greece and Italy respectively. Mario Draghi becomes ECB president
December 2011	Draghi launches LTRO. Fiscal compact treaty agreed. Mariano Rajoy becomes Spain’s prime minister
February 2012	Rajoy admits higher Spanish budget deficit
May 2012	François Hollande elected French president
June 2012	Partial bail-out agreed for Spanish banks. Agreement on banking union
July 2012	Draghi gives “whatever it takes” speech
August 2012	ECB agrees OMT programme
October 2012	Angela Merkel visits Athens
November 2012	Greek debt burden spread out, interest-rate cut
December 2012	European Council rejects Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy’s plans for greater union
February 2013	Indecisive Italian election
March 2013	First Cyprus bail-out, banks shut, revised bail-out
April 2013	Enrico Letta becomes Italian prime minister
September 2013	German election. Merkel wins and negotiates grand coalition
December 2013	Ireland exits bail-out programme. Single bank supervisor agreed
January 2014	Latvia joins euro
February 2014	Matteo Renzi becomes Italian prime minister