Through today’s approval from the European parliament, Slovakia is becoming part of the Eurozone from 1st January 2009. The assembly, meeting in Strasbourg, actually approved the report by Malta MEP David Casa with great majority. The report expressed a favourable opinion on the adoption of the sole currency. With the entrance of Slovakia, the Eurozone will thus rely on sixteen member countries: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Low Countries, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta and Slovakia. However, the report asks the country "to control the inflation rate" and "to carry out structural reforms" in some key sectors such as work market, service and product markets, and investments in the "human capital". A specific indication concerns the preference to "put the conclusion of any deficit procedures before respect of Maastricht criteria". Furthermore, "information campaigns to explain citizens the advantages of the sole currency" and controls to avoid unjustified price increases of consumer goods are required. Finally, the Hemicycle invites the Slovakian social parties "to keep wage growth in line with productivity growth in the next future", in order to avoid an inflation and wage spiral.
