Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-04-Speech-2-290"
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".
I shall respond to Mr Posselt’s first question by saying that Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia have set 1 January 2007 as their target date for adopting the euro; Cyprus, Latvia and Malta propose adopting the euro on 1 January 2008; Slovakia intends to do so on 1 January 2009; the Czech Republic and Hungary hope to enter the eurozone in 2010 and Poland has not set a target date.
At least every two years, or at the request of a Member State, the Commission and the European Central Bank must report to the Council on the progress made by the Member States in terms of compliance with their obligation to become full members of the Economic and Monetary Union.
In February 2006, the Commission, in agreement with the European Central Bank, announced that the next convergence report, on all of the States that are not members of the eurozone, except the two with an opt-out clause, the United Kingdom and Denmark, will be published in October 2006, that is, two years after the last assessment. Nevertheless, in accordance with Article 122 of the Treaty, two Member States, Slovenia and Lithuania, have asked the Commission and the European Central Bank for an individual report on the progress they have made in terms of convergence; the Commission and also the European Central Bank intend to adopt this report on these two Member States on 16 May 2006.
In the event that the assessment of compliance with the economic and legal convergence criteria is positive, the Commission would present the corresponding proposal and, following consultation of this Parliament, in the middle of June the European Council could analyse and, if appropriate, adopt, a decision, and definitive proposed derogation could therefore be discussed by the Ecofin Council on 11 July.
Independently of this process, we in the Commission of course maintain regular contacts with all of the States intending to enter the eurozone, we monitor them very closely and we cooperate with them in relation to the practical preparations for this important decision.
In response to Mr Paleckis’s question, I must say to him that of course the Commission will apply the principle of equal treatment when assessing the progress of the ten new Member States in terms of economic and legal convergence. As I have just said, the countries will be assessed according to the procedure and the criteria laid down in the Treaty, in particular Article 122, and the Commission obviously has no intention of changing this procedure or introducing additional criteria.
With regard to the inflation criterion, as you are aware, the Treaty states that the Member State in question is obliged to maintain sustainable price trends and an average inflation rate which does not exceed that of the three Member States with the best price stability results by any more than 1.5%. The Commission proposes applying this criterion rigorously in the future, just as it has done in the past."@en1
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