Given the importance of the EMU to the EU, in what follows, I will focus my comments on what I believe are the key policy issues in the euro zone, the opportunities for the Central and Eastern European countries, and the impact on the world economy.
And the impact on the euro area government deficit is likely to be negligible. But the scale of government support to the financial sector is far greater than these figures suggest. According to the European Commission, as of the end of March 2009, the amount of funds made available under approved measures amounted to around 35% of euro area GDP.