Given the accession countries’ different starting-points and degrees of economic transition, they could justifiably apply differing approaches to the timing of EU accession, to ERM II membership, to their monetary and exchange rate strategies and the necessary development of sound financial market infrastructures.
Internal reform and deepening of the EU as a precondition for enlargement While the accession preparations certainly constitute an extremely demanding adjustment and reform programme for the applicant countries, there should be no denying that the European Union, too, will have to reform its institutions and decision-making structures in order to be able to welcome the new Member States.