Looking towards the East

The “Baltic tiger” makes its appearance in Euro-Land, while Budapest takes over the presidency of the Council of Ministers of the European Union. These are the two main “institutional” news about the EU in these first few days of 2011, along with the debut of the three new financial-supervision authorities and the start of the European Year of Volunteering.Transition to the euro: everything was fine. On January 1st, Estonia became the seventeenth country to adopt the single currency, thus confirming it was fairly ready in terms of macroeconomic figures and monetary management. The latest accessions to the euro-zone had also been successfully handled: Slovenia (2007), Cyprus and Malta (2008), and Slovakia (2009). “After the first two days using the new currency, 28% of respondents stated they already had only or mostly euro banknotes in their purses”, as found by a brief survey by Eurobarometer, revealed on January 3rd. According to the EU Commission, the transition to the new currency was “successfully” accomplished. To help consumers, “retailers – the EU Commission points out – had started to show prices in both currencies since July 1st 2010 and will have to keep doing so until June 20th 2011”. The old currency, the corona, will be phased out and replaced at the end of a two-week transition period. According to Eurobarometer survey, “about 26% of payments in stores were made in euros and over 90% of customers were given their change in euros” since the very beginning. No special problem was reported by the banks – open on the holidays as well to ease the transition to the new currency – or by any business.“Don’t rest on your laurels”. Last August, retailers, banks and public authorities had been made to subscribe to special agreements not to increase prices and rates after the transition to the new currency, “except to cover any actual price increase”. In November, the EU Commission goes on, Estonians were handed out some explanatory leaflets and two sheets “with a corona-euro conversion table and an explanation of what details of the banknotes they should check to spot any fake”. Now, the Consumer Protection State Agency “will watch over businesses, stores and prices and will publicly report any major breach of the rules”. Also according to the EU Executive, Estonia “cannot rest on its laurels. As the seventeenth country in the euro-zone, it will have to implement debt and budget deficit policies that ensure economic growth, job creation and a stable inflation rate”. Budapest as the current president. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban is working at the latest details of his current presidency. In the first six months of the year, he will be at the helm of the Council of Ministers of the 27 member states and will have to closely cooperate with the “permanent” presidency of the Council of Europe, which is held by Herman Van Rompuy, with the EU Commission and the European Parliament. On January 7th, he will meet the EU Executive led by president José Manuel Barroso, while on January 19th he will go to Strasbourg to submit its programme to the MEPs. Four are the main points on Orban’s agenda. The first one is “economic growth to protect the European social model”. This means trying to stabilise the continent’s economy after the turbulence brought about by the crisis: on several occasions, Orban had stated he believes in a recovery “focussed on competitiveness and job creation”. However, the European social model includes several forms of solidarity: the Hungarian Prime Minister lists the fight against children’s poverty and the social inclusion of the Romas, who are a large community in his country. Citizens, accession, neighbourhood. The second point on his agenda speaks of a “stronger Europe”, which Orban would like to support through three specific policies: food (involving a revision of the agricultural policy), energy (provisioning), and water (water resources). Third of the list in these Hungarian six months’ programme is the establishment of “a Union that is close to its citizens”. Here, Orban intends to strengthen joint work for security (Stockholm Programme), free mobility (extending Schengen to Romania and Bulgaria), protection of fundamental rights, and promotion of cultural diversity “as a European value worth protecting”. The fourth point of the programme is accession and the neighbourhood policy: Budapest’s government looks to the Balkans and the “Eastern dimension” of the neighbourhood policy, for which he announces a special summit, due to take place in Hungary in May 2011.