Policy brief

The Baltic Challenge and Euro-Area Entry

Publishing date
30 November 2009
Authors
Zsolt Darvas

Resident Fellow Zsolt Darvas takes a look at the issue of the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - and the challenges facing those three countries in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He argues that because it is in the broader European interest to prevent a collapse in the Baltics, the best option is immediate euro entry at a suitable exchange rate supported by appropriate resolution in order to manage the resulting debt overhang. However, there seems to be no legal basis for this under the current euro accession criteria. Furthermore, the economic foundations of the criteria are fundamentally flawed, as euro-area members continue to violate the criteria while the EU's expansion to 27 members has made the criteria tougher for new member states to meet themselves. Ultimately, the European Council has the ability to reform the criteria without a formal treaty change. The Council should do so, the author argues, and allow for more meaningful benchmarks for all future euro-area applicants.

About the authors

  • Zsolt Darvas

    Zsolt Darvas, a Hungarian citizen, joined Bruegel as a Visiting Fellow in September 2008 and continued his work at Bruegel as a Research Fellow from January 2009, before being appointed Senior Fellow from September 2013. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Corvinus University of Budapest.

    From 2005 to 2008, he was the Research Advisor of the Argenta Financial Research Group in Budapest. Before that, he worked at the research unit of the Central Bank of Hungary (1994-2005) where he served as Deputy Head.

    Zsolt holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Corvinus University of Budapest where he teaches courses in Econometrics but also at other institutions since 1994. His research interests include macroeconomics, international economics, central banking and time series analysis.

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