Europese Centrale Bank maakt overuren om uitbreiding EU mogelijk te maken (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Staff at the European Central Bank (ECB) have been working flat out to prepare for enlargement, its president Jean-Claude Trichet confirmed today (27 April).

Presenting the ECB's 2003 annual report before the European Parliament, Mr Trichet announced, "over the last four and a half years, staff members from the ECB and from the euro area NCBs [national central banks] have devoted around 20,000 working days to co-operation activities to prepare for enlargement".

Due to this careful preparatory work, Mr Trichet pronounced the ECB "well prepared" for the challenges that lie ahead after 1 May, when ten new, poorer nations join the EU.

Major adjustments required

Certainly one of the main challenges ahead for the ECB is integrating the accession countries into Europe's single currency, the euro.

And Mr Trichet warned new member states that they will have to make significant changes to their economies before they are allowed to join the euro club.

"To ensure smooth participation in ERM-2, major policy adjustments such as price liberalisation and credible fiscal consolidation plans must be made prior to participation in the mechanism", he said.

Before joining the euro, all EU newcomers will have to participate in the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) 2, which ensures that their currencies are stable against the euro for a set period of time. It is often described as the "holding bay" in which prospective members must sit before being granted access to euro membership.

Euro membership is "an irrevocable decision", cautioned the ECB head and accession countries must take great care to ensure that they are ready and can keep to the rules once admitted to the club.

Substantial benefits

But Mr Trichet was customarily upbeat about accession saying that the historic event "implied substantial benefits in economic terms, both for new and current EU states".

Although living standards in accession countries is now significantly below that of the present EU 15, the ECB is confident that the gap would soon be closed, confirmed the Frenchman.