FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Union needs to “fine tune” its
convergence criteria — the standards that new members must meet to join
the currency union — European Central Bank Governing Council member
Erkki Liikanen said Monday.
“Although we now have considerable experience in applying the
convergence criteria, we still need to work on fine-tuning the way we
interpret them,” Liikanen, who is governor of the Bank of Finland, said
in prepared remarks for a conference celebrating Estonia’s accession to
the Eurozone on January 1, 2011.
Examination of candidate countries now is more heavily weighted
toward sustainability, and this is a good thing, Liikanen underlined.
“Convergence is not about hitting an admissible combination of
economic indicators at one point in time,” Liikanen said, “But we may
still be concentrating too much on the near term,” he posited.
Rather, convergence is “about a lasting commitment to sustainable
economic policy,” which includes price stability, sustainable public
finances and sustainable private sector development, he argued.
“Ultimately, it requires the capacity to take the appropriate
political decisions when things go wrong,” the central banker said,
adding that Estonia has shown a “remarkable capacity” to make tough but
necessary decisions.
Liikanen also said that he is confident that Estonia will emerge
from the recession with a stronger economy.
–Frankfurt newsroom, +49-69-720-142; tbuell@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$X$$$,M$$EC$,M$$CR$,MGX$$$,M$$FX$]