While historical parallels are dangerous, the one constant is that the predominate aim of public servants, past and present, is to serve the public good through analysis that best informs policy decisions.
As far as we can judge today, we see the economic and monetary policy integration of the candidate countries proceeding in three steps. In a first step, the candidates will accede to the European Union, then they will participate in the ERM II, the exchange rate mechanism of the Union, and finally, they will introduce the euro as their national currency.