Fullyrðingin um að Ísland verði 30 ár að taka upp evruna virðast byggja á mjög vafasömum staðhæfingum um Maastricht skilyrðin. Sérstaklega þá fullyrðingu að ekki séu veittar undanþágur frá þeim. Sendiherra ESB gagnvart Noregi og Íslandi er á annari skoðun og í nýlegri bloggfærslu hans um málið kemur þetta fram.
The biggest obstacle to eventual membership of the eurozone, which would take place at the very minimum two years after EU membership (after at least two years in ERM II), would therefore seem to be government debt.
But it is worth noting that The EU Treaty (Art 104) foresees that a government debt ratio above 60% of GDP, which is “sufficiently diminishing and approaching the reference value at a satisfactory pace” can be compatible with not being put in the so called excessive deficit procedure (EDP). And if a country is not in EDP, it fulfils the Maastricht public finance criterion (see Art 121). In other words, it is not excluded that a country could qualify for the euro even if the ratio is above 60%, as long as the debt ration is on a steady downward path. In fact there are several precedents of countries with debt/GDP ratios above 60% having been admitted into the euro area, for example Belgium, Italy and Greece.
Hægt er að lesa alla bloggfærslu sendiherra ESB gagnvart Íslandi og Noregi hérna.