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ED-UNILU presents the exhibition “Pierre Werner (1913-2002) – A life dedicated to Luxembourg and Europe” at the European University Institute

  • Europe Direct University of Luxembourg
    11 November 2025
  • Category
    Outreach

To mark the 55th anniversary of the Werner Report – which laid the foundations of the European single currency and represented a milestone in European integration – Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg (ED-UNILU), in collaboration with the European University Institute (EUI) and the Historical Archives of the European Union, is presenting an exhibition titled ‘Pierre Werner (1913–2002) – A Life Dedicated to Luxembourg and Europe’.

The exhibition officially opens on 11 November 2025, as part of a public event dedicated to historical research and archives, with Viviane Reding, President of the Fondation du Mérite Européen and former Vice-President of the European Commission, Dr Marco Barucco, Secretary General of the EUI, Dr Dieter Schlenker, Director of the HAEU, and Dr Elena Danescu, Coordinator of the ED-UNILU.

Exhibition Pierre Werner (1913-2002) – A life dedicated to Luxembourg and Europe

As a long-standing senior civil servant, minister and Prime Minister from the end of the Second World War until the mid-1980s, Pierre Werner gave his country, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a voice that would be heard beyond its borders. He was closely involved in integration and policy-making efforts at the national, regional and European levels. He was an excellent listener and known for his skills of understanding and reconciling apparently incompatible positions. He was committed to defending the vital interests of Luxembourg and Europe over the long term. Pierre Werner is unanimously recognised as one of the main architects of Economic and Monetary Union: the 1970 Werner Report sketched out the fundamental features of what would later become the euro.

Based primarily on Pierre Werner’s private collections, alongside relevant Luxembourgish and European archives, including the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU), the exhibition presents a multifaceted portrait of Pierre Werner. It highlights his personality, his role as a father and family man, his social and intellectual interests, and his achievements as a politician and committed European. Through this collaborative initiative, previously undisclosed archival sources relating to the history of Luxembourg and the Economic and Monetary Union are brought to light, making them accessible and compelling to a broader audience, while highlighting their enduring historical significance and contemporary relevance.

The date of 8 October 2025 marked the 55th anniversary of the “Stage-by-Stage Plan for Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) within the European Community,” better known as the “Werner Report” or the “Werner Plan”.

Drawn up by a committee of experts chaired by the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Luxembourg, Pierre Werner (1913–2002), and officially presented on 8 October 1970 in Luxembourg, this reflection document outlined the main principles, framework, and steps toward an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) based on the principle of irreversibility and an approach rooted in perfect symmetry between its economic and monetary dimensions, with political union as the ultimate objective. It envisaged the creation of a “decision-making centre for economic policy” that would be “politically accountable to a European Parliament” elected by direct universal suffrage, as well as a “Community system for central banks.”

The Werner Report provided the definition of a complete and symmetrical EMU, and many of its recommendations remain on the European agenda to this day.

Organisers: Europe Direct University of Luxembourg (EDIC), University of Luxembourg and Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH)
Design, texts and layout: Henri Werner
© 2022 Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History
All rights reserved

This exhibition concludes the series of scientific and public events that the European University Institute (EUI), the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, and the Historical Archives of the European Union are currently organizing in Florence, in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg, the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, and Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg, including:

Further communication by the European University Institute:

Pierre Werner – A life dedicated to Luxembourg and Europe • European University Institute

Ursula Hirschmann Annual Lecture, with Ms. Viviane Reding

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