Thirteen central and eastern European countries have applied for membership of the EU. They range, geographically, from the Baltic States in the north to Turkey in the south. A precondition of membership is that the accession countries implement the so-called acquis communautaire, ie the around 80,000 pages of Community law provisions which, among many other areas, include legislation on the euro as well.
It will be interesting to see how the accession countries enrich Europe’s legal landscape. When implementing the Community’s acquis they may, on the one hand, profit from already well established structures, which could lead to a fairly high level of harmonisation. However, taking into account the cultural diversity of the countries concerned, considerable legal differences may, perhaps, not be ruled out.