Signing of the European Monetary Agreement

After the creation of the temporary European Payments Union (EPU), which was set to disappear following the restoration of convertibility for European currencies, Austria, the Benelux countries, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States (the seventeen member countries of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation) signed the European Monetary Agreement (EMA) on August 5, 1955. The purpose of the EMA was to establish a European Monetary Fund to provide short-term credits to the member countries of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation.