The Political Economy of the Eurozone in Central and Eastern Europe Why In, Why Out? Europa Perspectives on the EU Single Market Series

The idea for this volume came from the enigma that some Central and Eastern European (CEE) European Union (EU) member states have been keen to join the Eurozone while others have shown persistent reluctance. Moreover, the attitudes towards joining have seemingly not correlated with either the level of economic development or the time spent as part of the EU, nor with any other rational reason such as the level of integration into the EU real economy, or the level of trust in the EU on the part of the public. Therefore, at first sight, the answer to the question ?why in, why out?? remains rather unclear.

The attractiveness of the currency union has nevertheless not disappeared for the CEE countries. Despite the Eurozone crisis of 2010?13, it was during that time that the Baltic states introduced the euro. Then, after a few years of inactivity, Croatia and Bulgaria successfully applied for membership of the exchange rate mechanism in July 2020, amid the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. At the same time, the three Visegrad countries still using their national currencies ? Poland, Czechia and Hungary ? no longer have a target date to join the monetary union. This volume aims to discuss these issues from horizontal aspects and through country studies, with contributions from expert authors from, or closely related to, the CEE region.

Part I: Horizontal Issues

1 Seventeen Years in the European Union: The Questions of Monetary Integration in Central and Eastern Europe

Krisztina Arató, Boglárka Koller and Anita Pelle

2 International Political Economy and Eurozone Membership of Post-transition Economies: A Theoretical Framework

Anita Pelle

3 Eurozone Membership, Economic and Political Gains and Losses

Christian Schweiger

4 Are Democratic Backsliding and Staying out of the Eurozone Interconnected?

Krisztina Arató and István Benedek

5 The Euro and the Collective Identities of Central and Eastern European Nationals

Boglárka Koller

6 The Global and the Eurozone Crises and their Effects on Central and Eastern Europe’s Economic Performance

Gabriella Tabajdi and Marcell Zoltán Végh

7 Companies in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurozone Membership: An Attempt at a Microeconomic Analysis

Marta Götz and Barbara Jankowska

8 The Banking Union and the Central and Eastern Europe Countries

Katalin Mérő

Part II: Country Studies

9 Eurozone Integrational Project Assessment: Economic Lessons from Slovenia and Croatia

Maks Tajnikar, Petra Došenović Bonča and Ivan Rubinić

10 Slovakia in the Eurozone: Tatra Tiger or Mafia State inside the Elite Club?

Zsolt Gál and Darina Malová

11 Poland and Euro Adoption: From Integration-driven Enthusiasm to Post-pandemic Uncertainty

Jakub Borowski

12 The Hungarian Eurolessness: From Eulogy to Neutrality and Beyond

Olivér Kovács

13 The Czech Republic and the Euro: Not Now, or Not Ever?

Vladan Hodulák and Zdeněk Sychra

14 The Baltic States and the Eurozone

Magnus Feldmann and Vytautas Kuokštis

15 A Tale of Two Peripheries: The Euro Accession in Bulgaria and Romania

Cornel Ban and Clara Volintiru

16 Central and Eastern Europe and the Euro in the 2020s: What is on the Horizon?

Krisztina Arató, Boglárka Koller and Anita Pelle

Krisztina Arató is Professor of Political Science, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Hungary.

Boglárka Koller is Professor of European Studies, University of Public Service – Ludovika, Hungary.

Anita Pelle is Jean Monnet Professor in Economics, University of Szeged, Hungary.