bundesbank.de | European Central Bank turns 25!: 25 May 1998

The European Central Bank (ECB) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. On 25 May 1998, the governments of the 11 participating member states appointed the president, Wim Duisenberg, along with the vice-president and the four other members of the ECB's Executive Board, one of whom was Otmar Issing, formerly the Bundesbank's chief economist. They took up office on 1 June 1998, formally establishing the ECB.
Origins in the 1970s.

The idea of creating a single currency for all of Europe had been hatched long before. Indeed, it began to garner interest when the Bretton Woods system, the international monetary system with fixed exchange rates, began to crumble. Pierre Werner, Luxembourg's prime minister at that time, presented in the early 1970s a plan to introduce a single currency for all the European Community member states by 1980.

Several European countries—the first being Belgium [BE], France [FR], Germany [DE], Italy [IT], Luxembourg[ LU], and the Netherlands {NL]—agreed in 1972 to initially set up a European exchange rate arrangement known as the "snake in the tunnel".
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BIS (1930): BE, FR, DE, IT, UK, CH
IMF Articles (1945); (1962-1971 G10): FR, IT, NL, UK, IT, DE, CH, UK, US, JP; 2023 SDR shareholders: G7 (USD, GBP, EUR (DE, FR, IT, EU), JPY) + 158 clients
EU6 FR, DE, BE, NL, IE, LU (by GINI)
EU6 FR, DE, IT, ES, NL, PL (by ECB share)