Monetary Union

True monetary union is achieved when different countries enact a joint, unified cross-border monetary and exchange-rate policy – either using a single currency or where each country’s currency circulates freely and interchangeably within the boundaries of the union at a permanently fixed exchange rate. Monetary policy decisions in cross-border monetary union are taken conjointly and contemporaneously ideally by a single central bank. Monetary authorities in each member of the union maintain no monetary autonomy; nor can members exercise individual control of international currency reserves. While all 27 countries of the European Union are part of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), as of September 2021, only 19 had adopted the euro as their national currency and delegated monetary policy to the European Central Bank. The East Caribbean dollar, used by Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, and Montserrat, and maintained by the East Caribbean Central Bank, is pegged to the US dollar. The CFA Franc, used by Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo and maintained by the Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, is pegged to the Euro.