Slovenia and the European Monetary Union

Ljubljana, 16 August - TOPIC/WEEK/SLOVENIA/EMU
Despite eroding public trust for the project of the European Monetary Union (EMU), EU member states have been intensely preparing for the introduction of the common currency and the establishment of EMU in 1999. Their attention is currently focused on achieving macroeconomic stability as defined by the Maastricht convergency criteria, which were set as the first condition for adopting EU members to the future monetary union. Stability of the future common currency is to be secured by measures of strict monetary and fiscal policies. Fulfillment of convergency criteria by a sufficient number of countries will namely define when EMU and a common currency will actually come into being and which countries will be accepted to EMU, upon which the entire project of transition to the common European currency ultimately dependent.