The discussion has not dealt with entry to the EU, for which the key issues have already been settled, but the next step: the euro. Nine of the ten new member states have announced their intention to introduce the euro as quickly as possible. For some of them the changeover would be entirely undramatic and opportune. For example, Estonia and Lithuania have long had currency boards anchored to the euro, whereby the currency is only issued against a certain statutorily established quantity of euro - in practice a kind of “shadow euro”. The currency boards anchored to the euro are considered to have contributed to falling inflation and a stable investment climate. Their economies have been highly flexible in terms of wages and prices and their government finances have been in order, and they have thereby been able to manage situations where developments in the Baltic countries have deviated from those in the euro area. The fact that they now also have the opportunity to introduce the euro is expected to provide further advantages for trade and price comparisons. But for some of the other new member states a hurried transition to the euro could give rise to problems. To qualify for participation in the eurozone the countries must meet the convergence criteria which lay down various requirements for inflation, interest rates, the exchange rate and government finances. The Baltic States are very close to meeting these criteria today, or have already fulfilled them. But the largest new member states have bigger difficulties.
The corresponding figures for Italy and Belgium are even more alarming. One way to reduce the dependency burden and increase the labour force is to try to get  4  BIS Review 51/2004  people that are unemployed, sick or in early retirement back to work. Historically, however, the most reliable way to steadily boost the labour force has been immigration, as has been the case in the United States, for example. Experiences and studies also show that people with the most advanced qualifications and best training most often have the greatest incentive to move, partly because the wage differential is bigger and partly because they find linguistic and cultural barriers easier to overcome. So to consolidate the welfare in the old countries, an increase inflow of highly qualified labour from the new member states would be desirable. The question is whether this is not correspondingly a disadvantage to the new member states. They have a somewhat different demographic situation, their dependency burden is lower today, but will later rise sharply and in several countries exceed Italy’s or Sweden's in 20-30 years. There is also a risk that it would be the best-qualified labour that would emigrate first. Meetings in a broader circle Having considered these prospects, I would like to provide an insight into how the enlargement changes the functioning of the EU. The Riksbank participates in a large number of EU committees.