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Fico: We Decline Any Additional Criteria for Eurozone Candidates
Monday 08 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 8 (TASR) - Slovakia supports the aim of European Union's member state Estonia to introduce the common European currency in January 2011, Slovak Premier Robert Fico said at a press briefing on Monday marking the visit of Estonian Premier Andrus Ansip to Slovakia.
"The Slovak Government fully supports this Estonian ambition," said Fico.
The two premiers discussed the Maastricht criteria [the euro convergence criteria for EU member states to enter the third stage of European Economic and Monetary Union and adopt the euro as their currency - ed. note]. Fico said that Slovakia will decline any efforts to pass new "political" criteria on candidates that would block new countries from entering the eurozone.
"We want to enter a strong eurozone. We don't ask for any exemptions, and stand ready to meet all the criteria. We don't want to repeat the mistakes that some made before us, and that's why Slovakia set a great example for us to emulate," said Ansip. He added that he believes new foreign investments can be brought to the country by virtue of Euro adoption. According to him, some 62 percent of Estonians support the introduction of Euro.
Estonia also stands as a candidate for housing the EU's agency for IT systems, with France being the only opposing candidate. "The Slovak Government will respect the tenet that such agencies should be located especially in new member states," said Fico.
During his one-day visit to Bratislava, Premier Ansip will also meet Finance Minister Jan Pociatek (Smer-SD) and Slovak Central Bank Governor Jozef Makuch. They are expected to discuss the adoption of the euro in Estonia. Slovakia, as the 16th country in the bloc to so so, introduced the euro in January 2009.
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