Padoa-Schioppa has been called the "intellectual impetus" behind the euro and the "founding father" of the new currency.
In an economics paper written in 1982 he pointed out that it is impossible for a group of countries like the EU to simultaneously aim at:
free trade,
capital mobility,
independent domestic monetary policies, and
fixed exchange rates.

These four goals, each apparently desirable on its own, he called "the inconsistent quartet" (see also the similar Impossible trinity concept).

At that time, European Union countries maintained some restrictions on trade and (especially) on capital movements.
 These were gradually eliminated through the Single Market programme and the liberalization of capital movements so that by the late 1980s one of the two remaining objectives had to go to for consistency to be maintained.
He proposed that the third objective (independent monetary policies) be abandoned, by creating a single currency and a single European central bank, so that the other three objectives could be attained.
The Delors Report of April 1989 endorsed this view and recommended a European Monetary Union (EMU) with a single currency.
He worked on designing and setting up the new European Central Bank and became one of the first executive board members (June 1998-May 2005).
Padoa-Schioppa has been called the "intellectual impetus" behind the euro and the "founding father" of the new currency. In an economics paper written in 1982 he pointed out that it is impossible for a group of countries like the EU to simultaneously aim at:
free trade,
capital mobility,
independent domestic monetary policies, and
fixed exchange rates.
These four goals, each apparently desirable on its own, he called "the inconsistent quartet" (see also the similar Impossible trinity concept).
At that time, European Union countries maintained some restrictions on trade and (especially) on capital movements.  These were gradually eliminated through the Single Market programme and the liberalization of capital movements so that by the late 1980s one of the two remaining objectives had to go to for consistency to be maintained. He proposed that the third objective (independent monetary policies) be abandoned, by creating a single currency and a single European central bank, so that the other three objectives could be attained. The Delors Report of April 1989 endorsed this view and recommended a European Monetary Union (EMU) with a single currency. He worked on designing and setting up the new European Central Bank and became one of the first executive board members (June 1998-May 2005).
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa