An island kingdom among euro countries?

Tomáš Sedláček(1977) is one of the world's five foremost young economists (Yale Economic Review). He worked as an economy adviser to former President Václav Havel (2001–2003) and as an adviser to the finance minister (2004–2006). After that, he became ČSOB's chief macroeconomics analyst.

We are turning on fog lights and slowing down – this is our officials' message about the ongoing integration of our economy with foreign peers. The fog and the stepping on the break are both caused by the government's „(non)effort“ – neither foreign countries nor a weak economy, whether ours or global, are to blame. Moreover, this situation brings along numerous paradoxes.

Joining the euro

Paradox number one is that our neighbours are likely to enter the eurozone before we do, although our economic situation is the strongest. If the government does not try harder to adopt the euro, we will soon become an island of national currency surrounded by countries using the euro. At the moment, it looks like Slovakia will adopt the euro in 2009, and the Polish government, though appointed only recently, wants to manage euro adoption in 2012 or 2013. By the way, the Polish experience shows that anything is possible if there is the (government's) will.

Paradox number two: there is little talk about the euro as a liberal concept that removes barriers …