In the spring of 2015, 45% of respondents in the euro area said they believed that the worst of the crisis was yet to come. 8  3  Malta and Cyprus joined the euro area in 2008, followed by Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014 and Lithuania in 2015.
Allow me to quote one last time from the 1992 Kronberger Kreis study – with a wink: “From the point of view of an individual country, the agreed ceilings for deficits and debt levels represent a certain protection against unsound fiscal policies of other members of the union.