Brussels, 15/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - In a speech made on 11 March at the Obserstdorfer Wirtschafsforum, Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, member of the Board of Governors at the European Central Bank, raised the issue of prospects of integration of the ten new Member States that joined the EU on May 1 2004. To be able to join the Euro zone, new members have to sustainably adhere to convergence criteria, she pointed out, noting that new members had very different calendars for introducing the euro in their countries. Lithuania, which has been part of the exchange rate mechanism since 27 June 2004 (like Estonia and Slovenia), are planning to join the Euro zone in 2006, whereas most of the other countries are planning on joining between 2007 et 2009, and Hungary in 2010. The participation of Lithuania, Estonia and Slovenia in the exchange rate mechanism has so far been « free of complications », indicated Ms Tumpel-Gugerell.
Ms Tumpel-Gugerell has also indicated: - in 2004, the public deficit in six of ten new Member States is substantially above the 3% of GDP ceiling: 6% in, Poland, 5.9% in the Czech Republic and 4.9% in Malta, 4.9%, in Hungary it stands at 4.6% in Cyprus and Slovakia 4.1%. Debt, the 60% ceiling has been overshot in Cyprus (74.6%) and Malta (73.9%). Ms Tumpel Gugerell also observed that the rhythm of budgetary consolidation in new Member States was « significantly higher than what we would have expected from their economic growth; - inflation rates in new Member States were relatively low until the beginning of 2004 - 2% on average after being around 10% environ at the beginning of 1997- but in recent months there has been an upward trend (8.4% in Slovakia, 6.5% in Hungary and 4.9% in Latvia); - in 2001 and 2002, long term interest in all new Member States apart from Estonia were falling and approaching the Euro zone average, but since then the gap has widened.