In 1968, the US dollar convertibility to gold was limited to central banks alone, and was soon permanently archived by Nixon in 1971 together with the "Bretton Woods system" on which the former had been established. In the same year, 1968, the European Common Market fully entered into force, much earlier than the expected duration for its transitory phase. The first contradiction in the path toward European integration unfolded. The market, which had come into being thanks to a "good currency",

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... founded on the common reference to the US dollar, found itself oscillating through fluctuant exchange-rates and competitive devaluations, putting its survival at risk. European responses demonstrated a well-timed and farsighted understanding of the problem, but were too fragile to tackle the immediate speculation. The Barre Plan of 1969 opened the way for policy convergence among European economies and those countries in difficulty that were implementing support mechanisms to restore stability in terms of their balance of payments. The Werner Report of 1970 formulated a road map aiming to achieve a European currency union in three phases. In 1971 the so called "snake in the tunnel" was created; an attempt that revealed, as predicted by federalists, its truer "eel-like" nature.