European Monetary Union

An agreement by participating European Union member countries that includes protocols for the pooling of currency reserves and the introduction of a common currency.

 

(1) (Electronic Message Service) The part of the radio spectrum assigned to electronic messaging over digital satellite circuits.

(2) (Electronics Manufacturing Services) A company that makes electronic devices for other companies. See contract manufacturer.

(3) (Enterprise Messaging Server) Original name for Microsoft's Exchange Server. See Microsoft Exchange.

(4) (Enhanced Message Service) An extension to the SMS short message service for cellphones that allows for the transmission of formatted text, icons, animations and ringtones. Introduced in the summer of 2001 by Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola and Siemens, it allows up to 17 SMS messages to be strung together. See SMS and MMS.

(5) (Expanded Memory Specification) The first technique that allowed DOS to reach beyond one megabyte. It provided access to 32MB by bank switching through a 64KB page frame in the UMA. The application was either written for EMS (Lotus 1-2-3, AutoCAD, etc.) or was run with system software that supported it, such as DESQview. In XTs and ATs, EMS required a board and driver, but 386 PCs could create EMS memory from extended memory. See UMA and DESQview.

There was a lot of confusion over EMS. Not only did expanded memory (EMS) and extended memory sound alike, but you had to specify how much EMS you needed. When Windows came along, it managed all memory in the PC and allocated EMS automatically for old DOS applications that required it.

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A 1979 arrangement between several European countries to link their currencies in an attempt to stabilize the exchange rate. This system was succeeded by the European Monetary Union (EMU), an institution of the European Union (EU), which established a common currency called the euro.

Investopedia Says:
The European Monetary System originated in an attempt to stabilize inflation and stop large exchange-rate fluctuations between European countries. Then in June 1998, the European Central Bank was established and, in Jan 1999, a unified currency, the euro, was born and came to be used by most EU member countries. As of 2005, Britain, Denmark and Sweden were the only original EU members that had not adopted the euro.

Related Links:
Baffled by exchange rates? Wonder why some currencies fluctuate while others don't? This article has the answers. Floating And Fixed Exchange Rates
Why would a country choose to implement dual or multiple exchange rates? It's risky, but it can work. Dual And Multiple Exchange Rates
They print money, they control inflation, and much, much more. All you need to know about central banks is here. What Are Central Banks?

1979 agreement by European nations to link their currencies with the objective of limiting currency variations to a narrow range and keeping inflation in check. A forerunner of today's European Union, the EMS eventually became strained by the differing economic policies of its members and in the early 1990s by the permanent withdrawal of Britain. These differences led to formation of the European Monetary Institute in 1994, an interim step toward a common economic policy, and in 1998 the European Central Bank.

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