An Analysis Regarding the Fulfilment of the Nominal Convergence Criteria in the New Member States of the European Union in the Context of the Current Financial Crisis

Reaching a sustainable level of nominal convergence is a requirement for all new European Union Member States (NMS) in the process of euro adoption, without it being impossible to join the euro area. The increased importance of nominal convergence, together with an advanced level of real convergence, seem to be for the European Union institutions, including the European Central Bank (ECB), a necessary and sufficient guarantee for entering into the European Monetary Union (EMU) without any additional subsequent problems. However, it is not clear the manner in which a country is or is not selected for entering into the EMU, the decision-making process being insufficiently transparent, some countries have been unprepared from the economical point of view, but have been accepted (e.g. Greece), while others have been rejected due to a lack of credible and sustainable convergence of some criteria (e.g. Lithuania). Thus, this article proposes an analysis of the fulfillment of the nominal convergence criteria through a personal methodology presented in other previous studies. It aims at facilitating the understanding of the extent to which the NMS are convergent in the context of the current economic and financial crisis. The article does not propose an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but it can be a good starting point for the evaluation of the European Union old Member States' (OMS) nominal convergence, especially since in these countries it currently occurs a public debt crisis (e.g. Greece, Italy, Spain).