All future members of the European Union will be
eligible to join the European single currency, the euro, in
accordance with the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty. The
ten countries that are due to join the EU on 1 May 2004 have
all expressed interest in joining the eurozone at the earliest
possible time. However, monetary integration may take longer
for some future members, notably Poland and Hungary, whose
budget deficits are deteriorating while unemployment is
soaring. The future members will also have to make further
efforts toward catching up to EU levels of income per capita,
which requires hard work in the area of labour markets and
fiscal policy reform.
