Eurogroup chief rules out quick easing of euro candidate rules
Agence France-Presse
01 March 2009, 13:32 CET
(BRUSSELS) - The head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers ruled out on Sunday a rapid relaxation of tough criteria euro candidate countries must meet to join the bloc.
"I don't think that we can change the accession criteria overnight," Luxembourg finance minister and premier, Jean-Claude Juncker, told journalists as he arrived for an EU summit in Brussels.
Earlier Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany suggested making it easier for non-euro members of the European Union to adopt the currency as one way of helping eastern European nations cope with the economic and financial crisis.
Under existing rules, euro candidate countries have to meet a set of tough economic criteria on keeping down their deficits and maintaining a stable exchange rate for at least two years before they are allowed to adopt the euro.
Gyurcsany said that while the criteria should be kept, the two-year waiting period should be scrapped.
Currently, the euro is legal tender in 16 EU countries, most of which are wealthy western European countries.
