Convergence criteria

(Photo: EU Commission)

Convergence entails that countries move closer to one another.

To join the single currency (the Euro), EU member states are obliged to meet four criteria, fixed in a Protocol (on the excessive deficit procedure) and in Art 121 ITEC:

Once a country has joined the third stage of the Economic and Monetary Union, it is bound by the Stability and Growth Pact and the annual “structural deficit” may not exceed 0,5%. 

 

Links

See Economic and Monetary Union 

http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l25014.htm