Critics of European economic and monetary union have wasted no time before claiming that the euro's slide only goes to show what a disastrous idea the single currency is.

ECONOMIST: Eurotrash?

Will European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) still exist?

ECONOMIST: The World in 2036

Even Joaquin Alumnia, the European Union's economic and monetary affairs commissioner who is against the "financial socialism" of bank bailouts, admits these were exceptional times.

FORBES: What Moral Hazard?

Similarly, it would be marvelous to hear her assess the state of the European Union today, as every one of her predictions of the dangers of economic and monetary union have been shown to be correct.

WSJ: Andrew Roberts: The Genius of Thatcherism Will Endure

British Eurosceptics and European federalists alike feel vindicated in predicting that monetary union would not work without a political and economic union.

ECONOMIST: The European Union and the euro

Yet by the time a 1991 European summit was held in the Dutch city of Maastricht, a plan for economic and monetary union (EMU) was written into a new EU treaty, to be ratified by member states later.

ECONOMIST: Holding together