Two recent waves of expansion are sapping the European Union of its will to enlarge further and accept new members in the euro zone, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Tuesday.
Speaking to students in the western Slovak town of Nitra, Fico said he felt some weariness in Brussels about future enlargement of Europe's monetary union, though Slovakia remains committed to euro adoption in 2009.
The leftist prime minister said the European Central Bank viewed the Slovak goal "with sympathy", but added he could not say the same about the European Commission. "The European Commission, as the political body of the European Union, is a little more pessimistic," Fico said. "There are some concerns whether we are able to sustain fulfilment of Maastricht criteria in the future.
"Furthermore, as there is some fatigue in terms of further European Union enlargement, we feel some fatigue also in terms of expanding the number of euro zone countries," he said.
Slovakia has cut its budget deficit and fought to bring down inflation in the past two years to become central Europe's frontrunner for euro zone entry as neighbours, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary struggle to curb fiscal gaps.
Fico adopted the euro entry target from the centre-right government of former Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda after he beat him in a June 2006 election. The leftist leader won the election on a platform of increased spending on the poor, but he has delayed many of pre-election promises to keep the fiscal gap under the euro adoption limit of 3.0 percent of gross domestic product.
"The goal to adopt the euro in 2009 is significantly limiting the government in terms of expenditures, because, on one hand, we want to support economic growth, and on the other hand we want a standard European social state," Fico said.
But he added that economic benefits from adopting the single currency will prevail over disadvantages, and said Slovakia was on track to meet conditions for its euro zone entry target.
The government set a budget deficit ceiling at 2.9 percent of GDP for this year, and Fico promised to cut it further to 2.5 percent and 2.0 percent of GDP in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Slovakia joined the EU in May 2004 along with nine other mainly post-Communist countries. Romania and Bulgaria were then accepted into the EU at the start of this year, bringing the bloc's membership to 27.
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