EU commissioner gets stricter on euro readiness

  • 2008-05-22
  • In cooperation with BNS
TALLINN- Siim Kallas, Vice-President ofthe European Commission met with Estonian reporterson Wednesday, said that assesment of interested countries'euro readiness could become stricter.

In his comment, Kallas referred to Slovenia and Slovakia. Slovakia adopted the euro from the beginning oflast year, but the rate of inflation has been considerablyhigher there than in other countries using the euro.

According to Eurostat the annual inflation of the whole euro zone was3.3 percent, while in Slovenia thefigure was 6.2 percent.

Slovakia also recently received the European Commission's recommendation to switch to the euro, but theEuropean Central Bank has warned that rising prices couldcreate problems also there.

Germans are critical of the enlargementof the euro zone at present, Kallas said. He added that theidea of the common European currency had been to ensurestability of prices.

Kallas said that the numerical criteria of the adoptionof the euro wouldn't change but added that there were otherarguments in addition to them.

Kallas said that it was a problem thatEstonia had still not managed to adopt the euro. If Estonia were usingthe euro, the country would have one worry less, he said.

Kallas' stance to parallel use of the euro wasdefensive. He doubted whether Estonia would win anythingby it and added that rather it would damage the country'sreputation.