Introduction:

Introduced as the new money of "The United Economy of Europe.”
Considered as the new policy of "The United Politics of Europe.”
Celebrated as the next step to "The United Nations of Europe.”

Eleven years later, something is different. Following the world financial crisis in 2008/09, the state debt crisis of several nations of the Eurozone found its peak in 2011. Before the Euro was introduced, many economists already cast doubt on the usefulness of a European monetary union. On the other side, many European politicians emphasized the importance of further integration between the different countries and cultures through one single currency. One might argue that the political arguments won at first and was then proven wrong by the economic arguments in 2011. However, in this paper, the focus is not on ‘who was right’ and ‘who was wrong”. In fact, the focus is on the role of transcultural political leadership in supranational contexts where different political cultures come together.

In order to answer this question, the introduction of the European monetary union seems to perfectly suit as an example since the Euro was both in a supranational context (shifting national competencies to the European Central Bank) and in a transcultural context (integrating national into a transcultural political monetary system). Before analysing the role of transcultural leadership in such contexts, I will get more in depth into the economic and political perspectives concerning the Euro introduction...