Balázs Ferkelt – Budapest Business School – University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of International Management and
Business, Hungary
Tünde Gergics – University of Pécs, Hungary
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31410/ITEMA.S.P.2019.15
3rd International Scientific Conference on Recent Advances in Information Technology, Tourism, Economics, Management and Agriculture – ITEMA 2019 – Bratislava, Slovakia, October 24, 2019, SELECTED PAPERS published by the Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans, Belgrade; Printed by: SKRIPTA International, Belgrade, ISBN 978-86-80194-24-0, ISSN 2683-5991, DOI: https://doi.org/10.31410/ITEMA.S.P.2019
Abstract
Regarding to the European Union law, all member states are obliged to introduce the euro
and to make efforts to fulfil the economic and legal convergence criteria. One country of Visegrad
Group, Slovakia has already introduced the common currency, while the three remaining countries,
outside the euro area do not have a target date of accession yet. The aim of the study is to determine
the readiness of these countries for Economic and Monetary Union membership by analysing macroand
micro-level economic indicators. The Czech Republic approaches the Euro Area average for most
indicators, while Hungary and Poland show significant backlogs. This paper highlights fulfilment of
the inflation criterion will be the greatest challenge among the Maastricht criteria. In addition, the
Visegrad countries need a detailed long-term catching-up strategy, especially for Hungary and Poland.
Keywords
Euro, Euro Area, Convergence, Visegrad Group, Visegrad Countries, Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland, Slovakia
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