Finally, an institutional criterion concerns the adoption of the “acquis communautaire”. BIS Review 33/2002  3  Moreover the accession criteria to the monetary union are well known: there are the famous Maastricht criteria relative to the moderation of inflation, the avoidance of excessive public finance deficits and the stability of the exchange rate.
In many accession countries substantial progress has already been achieved in different fields and one can expect the participation of over ten new Member States to the European Union in the coming years and later on to the monetary union. However a lot remains to be done.