But Germany has stopped short of that in its proposals and asks rather for sanctions for those that breach deficit rules to be written into the treaty.
For those countries hoping to join the single currency, 1996-97 was marked mainly by the struggle to bring their economies into line with the strict pre-entry criteria insisted on by the Germans and written into the Maastricht treaty.
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.