The aim of these market-based and voluntary Principles is to provide guidelines for the behaviour of sovereign issuers and their private creditors regarding information sharing, dialogue, and close cooperation in times of financial distress.
As you know, three new EU countries have in the meantime entered the ERM II: with effect from 28 June 2004, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia joined Denmark as participants in the mechanism. The three new entrants joined with a standard fluctuation band of ±15% around their central rates against the euro, while Estonia and Lithuania kept their currency boards as a unilateral commitment.