Over the last few years, twelve countries, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004, and Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, joined the European Union. This came as the result of a long political process, followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. When these countries joined the European Union, they were soon promised by the members of the Eurozone, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain that they would join the Euro quickly, most probably within a couple of years. For Eastern European and Baltic countries, understood here as the twelve new European Union members, excluding Malta and Cyprus, joining the Euro was one of the key advantages of joining the European Union, as this meant that they would become part of one of the greatest currency zones in the world, which would certainly give a boost to their economies and enhance their integration into the global markets.
[...] The current financial crisis, and the Czech presidency of the European Union, starting in January 2009, will probably answer many of the questions the rest of the European Union is asking about the economic strength of Eastern European and Baltic countries. But once all these questions have been dealt with, and the Eurozone considers that Eastern European and Baltic countries are ready to join the Euro, there is no doubt about the fact that these countries will surely become great models of achievement for the rest of the world's emerging countries BIBLIOGRAPHY Combe, Emmanuel. [...]
[...] This may be especially true in Eastern European and Baltic countries, where the post-communist transition to a market economy is still recent, so that the citizens of Eastern European and Baltic countries could suffer from the loss of their national, and fairly new, currency, and have difficulties to adapt to the new one, the Euro. Perhaps Eastern European and Baltic countries should thus not rush to take another identity, that of sound capitalist countries, because they are not yet totally comfortable with it. [...]
[...] This being said and acknowledged, and as Eastern European and Baltic countries will always be less developed from an economic viewpoint, but could d much o better if they had the chance to join the Euro, why not letting them join the Euro to help them develop more quickly and efficiently? This is all the more true since Greece, for instance, was allowed to join the Euro although it did not meet the convergence criteria, especially regarding inflation (with a inflation rate in 1998) and long-term interest rates (which averaged in 1998). [...]
[...] Moreover, as the 2008 European Commission's Eurobarometer presented below shows, joining the Euro would be seen rather favorably by the population of Eastern European and Baltic countries: overall, a majority of people say that not a majority of people they know are against the introduction of the Euro, and a majority of people are also happy to have their currency replaced by the Euro. Such move 2 "Euro co uld replace dollar as top currency-Greenspan." < http:>. Reuters Sept Nov would moreover be perceived as another sign of strong political integration into the European Union, after the very popular Schengen zone enlargement to Eastern Europe in January 2008. [...]
[...] For this reason, if Eastern European and Baltic countries do not want to have to deal with any sort of stigma attached to their joining the Euro, these countries should probably wait until the financial crisis has been overcome, and economic outlooks are looking better. Finally, and as mentioned before, inflation is still high in Eastern European and Baltic countries , and reaches in Latvia and in Hungary. If these countries joined the Eurozone, they would lose all of their monetary prerogatives, as their Central Banks would be left with only residual powers. [...]
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