Euro-Expansion: Whither the Prospects?

Euro-expansion iwas alive and well, despite widespread doubts about the future of the currency. For a small European country with an open economy dependent on trade with the big economies on the continent, it made sense to have a currency peg and economic and monetary union with the rest of the continent. But to reap these greater rewards, candidate countries had to become leaner and more efficient, by first implementing underlying structural reforms in their economies, which would put them on a path to greater convergence with the current eurozone economies.