Progress in the candidate countries on this issue is being monitored very closely by the European Union at large and by the European System of Central Banks in particular. Let me now shortly sketch the second and the third step of the prospective monetary integration of the Central and Eastern European applicant countries.
Upon joining the European Union, the new Member States are bound to the fulfillment of a number of EMU-specific obligations: they obligate themselves to orient their overall policies, and specifically their economic and monetary policies, toward the objectives of EMU, and they must endeavour to make progress toward meeting the convergence criteria stipulated by the Maastricht Treaty.