The European Monetary Union officially includes 12 EU member states. If we add to them four mini-states – Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican, we get 16. The fact is that these European "dwarfs", on whose territory the lira and the franc previously circulated, also entered the euro zone "by a roundabout way". With the exception of Andorra, each of these dwarf states even has the right to mint its own euro coins.
So, with the numbers "12" and "16" everything is more or less clear. But where did the number "18" come from? It turns out there are two more European "euro-regions" that are not, strictly speaking, states. These are Kosovo and Montenegro, on whose territory the German mark was once introduced and which, with its abolition, automatically became members of the euro zone.
But let us return to the European Union. With the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the monetary union became the cornerstone of the European community. After all, the euro is intended to simplify the exchange of goods and services. With its introduction, for example, it becomes easier to compare prices in different countries.
Meanwhile, EU member states receive permission to introduce the euro if they meet certain criteria. True, 3 of the 15 "old" EU members refused to introduce the euro on their territory themselves. Thus, Denmark and Great Britain secured such an exclusive right back in the Maastricht Treaty. And Sweden did not join the euro zone because, as the results of a national referendum showed, its population opposed the introduction of the single European currency.
To enter the euro zone, the ten countries that joined the European Union in May of last year must also meet the Maastricht criteria. But, as can be seen from the European Central Bank (ECB) report for October 2004, not one of them meets these criteria yet.
At the same time, the new EU members are very different in terms of economic development. A giant chasm lies, for example, between the fairly strong Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and the lagging Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. And the undisputed leader among the "newcomers" is Estonia. Even the "old-timers" of the EU turn pale with envy looking at this Baltic state. This is not surprising: the budget deficit of such "whales" as Germany and France exceeded three percent of the total value of all goods and services produced in these countries. Thereby they violated the Stability and Growth Pact, which stipulates that the size of the state budget deficit of the member countries of the treaty should not exceed three percent of gross domestic product.
But in Estonia, the excess of revenues over expenditures amounts to more than three percent of GDP. Moreover, the total government debt is only five percent. Thanks to the strict financial policy pursued in the country, the Estonian kroon has long been firmly pegged to the euro. Since June 2004, Estonia has also been participating in the second variant of the European Monetary System, specially designed to organize monetary cooperation between participants and temporary outsiders of the euro zone.
If Estonia withstands the two-year trial period without excessive devaluation or revaluation of its currency, the doors to the euro zone will open for it in 2006. The next candidate countries for joining the euro zone simultaneously with Estonia are Lithuania and Slovenia, whose financial systems are stable and also involved in the transitional exchange rate mechanism.
The outsiders, as already mentioned above, include the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. The budget deficit in these countries clearly does not meet the Maastricht norms, which allow only 3% of the negative balance. For example, in the Czech Republic this figure amounted to as much as 12% at the end of 2003.
But, as they say, hope dies last. After all, in the mid-90s no one could have imagined that, for example, Portugal or Spain would become members of the euro zone.