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Poland and the Eurozone pp 139–164Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Maastricht Inflation Criterion and Entry to the Eurozone: Challenges and Options for EU Countries from Central and Eastern Europe

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Part of the book series: Studies in Economic Transition ((SET))

Abstract

The enlargements in 2004, 2007 and 2013 brought a total of 13 new countries into the European Union, of which 11 are post-communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and two are Mediterranean island states. When they joined, the new members committed to entering the eurozone and adopting the euro once they had fulfilled the Maastricht convergence criteria. By the beginning of 2014 four of the eleven post-communist countries had entering the eurozone, but this still left seven post-communist EU countries outside the eurozone, of which Poland is the biggest and the most important economically and politically. This chapter discusses what is without doubt the biggest challenge for Poland and the six other CEE countries, that is the Maastricht Treaty’s price stability criterion or inflation criterion as it is more commonly called. The complications of satisfying the criterion are adeptly summarised in the title of a 2006 paper by Ales Bulir and Jaromir Hurnik: ‘The Maastricht inflation criterion: how unpleasant is purgatory?’

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Authors
  1. Karsten Staehr
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bournemouth University, UK

    Jens Hölscher (Professor of Economics and Head of Department) (Professor of Economics and Head of Department)

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© 2014 Karsten Staehr

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Staehr, K. (2014). The Maastricht Inflation Criterion and Entry to the Eurozone: Challenges and Options for EU Countries from Central and Eastern Europe. In: Hölscher, J. (eds) Poland and the Eurozone. Studies in Economic Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137426413_8

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