In this interview excerpt, Fabrizio Saccomanni, an economist at the Bank of Italy from 1967 to 1970 and on secondment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington from 1970 to 1975, first as an economist in the Exchange and Trade Relations Department and then as assistant to the Executive Director for Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, discusses the role played by Gaetano Stammati and Simone Palumbo, the Italian members of the Werner Committee set up to produce a report on the establishment by stages of an economic and monetary union.