As we’ve all discussed and lamented, nobody really knows much about the European Parliament, or has a strong opinion on anything that our European reprsentatives can accomplish. Coming up with a good, clear, convincing campaign for the EP elections is difficult.
In one country, it just got a whole lot easier.
The news dailies are reporting today (in Estonian, so I’ll spare you the links) that the Prime Minister intends to push forward Estonia’s adoption of the Euro by six months, and make the transfer on July 1st, 2010. According to the government, the country will have fulfilled the Maastricht criteria by the end of 2009, and will then formally initiate the transition.
Estonia's Euro coin design
Individually, that sounds like a regular pre-election political speech, something to make the electorate take notice. Interestingly enough the PM’s statement was very quickly confirmed by the head of the Estonian Central Bank. Now, the Central Bank is an independent institution, and its management is usually quick to take the government down a peg, so as not to get stuck in overly optimistic promises. But the Bank’s governor has said that it is indeed very likely that the Eurozone criteria will be met this year. He also warned that the date, July 1st, relies on some pretty quick work by the European officials, getting all the paperwork ready, gathering up all the confirmations, approvals and signatures.
Here is a practical, clear and imminent target for Estonia’s European contingent. Make sure this happens. Estonia’s economy is in pretty decent shape, but there’s plenty of sillyness that is impacting our credibility, and over all we do want the Euro. The sooner the better. If there is an EP election candidate that convinces me they will successfully get this done, they will have my vote; it is the single most important European issue for Estonia for the next five years. More important than security, even (because integration implies security).
I’ll tell you if any of the candidates take up this cause.
(41 votes, average: 3.41 out of 5)
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