4th INFER Workshop on Financial Markets

The Euro in Eastern Europe:
Options for the monetary and currency regime

April 11, 2003, Berlin, Germany

Conference Topics

Ten Central European countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus – are expected to join the EU in the first half of 2004. As these countries will not be allowed to “opt out” of the EMU, the question when and under what conditions they will introduce the euro arises. Adoption of the euro could be achieved through the “normal procedure” of meeting the Maastricht criteria and taking a seat in the ECB or via unilateral euroization. These options, as well as possible pit falls on the way to EMU membership were discussed within the workshop.

Place

The workshop was held at Technical University Berlin.

Participants

The workshop was addressed to experienced researchers, recently graduated students and professionals from business, government or non-governmental institutions.

Programme

9.30-10.30

Franz Nauschnigg, National Bank of Austria
The Euro and the Use of Foreign Currencies in Central and Eastern Europe

10.30-11.30

Christoph Pasternak, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
Vulnerability to Currency Crises in Central and Eastern Europe - A "Signal Approach"-based Analysis

13.30-12.30

Jean-Sébastien Pentecôte, University of La Réunion, France and Marc-Alexandre Sénégas, Univerity Montesquieu – Bordeaux IV, France
ERMII Anchoring on the Way to EMU: More Notional than Real Effects?

12.30-14.30

Lunch Break

14.30-15.30

Gernot Müller, European University Institute and Roland Straub, European University Institute
Floating-cum-Inflation Targeting in the Presence of Non-fundamental Exchange Rate Volatility

15.30-16.30

Tomasz Chmielewski, National Bank of Poland and Warsaw School of Economics
Is the Balassa-Samuelson-Effect a Serious Obstacle of an Accession Country?

Publication of papers

The papers presented at the conference will be published in a conference volume in the summer of 2003. Registration fee for speakers includes a free copy of the conference volume.

Organisation of this workshop