Excluding Lithuania from euro zone makes no economic sense

The president of the Liberal faction in the European parliament, Graham Watson, believes the European Commission made a mistake in rejecting Lithuania's bid to enter the euro zone 2007. "We are applying much stricter criteria to Lithuania than to the current members of the euro zone. Lithuania currently fulfills all the criteria, and is only 0.1% above the inflation ceiling. The fact that the Lithuanian economy is growing at a faster rate than that of other European countries was clearly not taken into consideration. Which is paradoxical, since it is this growth that is responsible for the high inflation rate. Should Lithuania have to brake its growth in order to be able to join the euro zone? This makes absolutely no economic sense. ... If the Commission wants to be so intransigeant, why doesn't it apply the same strict criteria to France or Germany as regards the stabilisation pact?"

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