Substantial progress has been achieved in the areas of property rights and privatization as well as capital and trade liberalization. As these countries have anchored their institutional structures to the EU, they are viewed as increasingly secure places for investing and doing business in general.
Moreover, the euro anchors monetary stability in the region, often directly, for instance through the European  2  BIS Review 89/2007  Exchange Rate Mechanism ERM II. Currently, six of the 12 new Member States are members of ERM II: Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Slovakia.