Beschreibung:
This paper takes stock of the progress achieved by the ten Central and Eastern European countries, which entered the EU in 2004 and 2007, in terms of their real and nominal economic convergence visà- vis the twelve EU Member States which were part of the euro area in 2004. It thus offers a longerterm perspective on the convergence process while providing a horizontal, cross-country comparison of convergence. Due to its different perspective and purpose, the paper does not assess the compliance with the formal criteria for euro adoption. The paper shows that between 2004 and 2014 most of these countries achieved significant real and nominal convergence vis-à-vis the initial twelve euro-area members.