Lithuania/EU: The EU backed Slovenia's application to adopt the euro yesterday but a dispute over Lithuania's failed bid to join the euro zone raised tensions between old and new member states over their treatment in the union.
Leaders from five of the new member states from central Europe attempted to put a statement to the European Council meeting in Brussels yesterday, which urged a full review of the criteria used to decide whether a state can adopt the euro.
The proposal was made after EU leaders agreed with a European Commission recommendation that Lithuania's inflation rate is too high to join the euro zone.
The leaders later withdrew the statement after the intervention of commission president José Manuel Barroso.
However, the incident drew attention to a feeling among new members that they are treated as second-class citizens within the union.
The eight states from central Europe that joined the union in May 2004 have complained bitterly about the failure of several old EU members to open their jobs markets to workers from central Europe.
There are also concerns from states such as Poland and Slovakia that they will not be able to join the Schengen visa system, which allows the removal of border controls between EU states, by the target date next year.
One diplomat from central Europe said the negative decision on Lithuania's bid to join the euro zone was a clear example of the different treatment meted out to new EU states since the rules have often been bent for other members of the euro zone.
The statement, which was tabled by the leaders of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia, said it wanted to draw attention to the uncertainties in the application of the "price stability criteria" for joining the euro zone.
"The convergence reports on Lithuania have revealed the need to launch a debate on the interpretation of the price stability criterion in order to better reflect the economic dynamics of the enlarged EU," it said.
States that joined the EU in May 2004 are concerned the EU's insistence that states conform to strict limits on inflation will prevent them joining the euro zone soon. Under the current rules, the inflation criterion is based on states having 12-month average inflation no higher than 1.5 points above the average of the three best performers in the EU in terms of price stability, on a sustainable basis.
Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus said this criterion needed to be debated, and he said Lithuania should be able to join the euro zone from the start of 2008.
However, senior euro-zone officials, including Eurogroup chairman and Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, have so far refused to reinterpret the criterion.
Meanwhile, Mr Barroso welcomed Slovenia's successful bid to become the 13th member of the euro zone. It will join on January 1st, 2007.