Estonia joins the club

Without much international fanfare, the perpetually troubled eurozone expanded this week, taking on economically dynamic Estonia, which will be the first former Soviet country to join the monetary union. Estonia’s eagerness to join could be seen as a sign that while the financial wisdom of the common currency is being quesitoned more widely, it’s political ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Without much international fanfare, the perpetually troubled eurozone expanded this week, taking on economically dynamic Estonia, which will be the first former Soviet country to join the monetary union. Estonia's eagerness to join could be seen as a sign that while the financial wisdom of the common currency is being quesitoned more widely, it's political significance remains for countries on the preriphery of Europe: 

Without much international fanfare, the perpetually troubled eurozone expanded this week, taking on economically dynamic Estonia, which will be the first former Soviet country to join the monetary union. Estonia’s eagerness to join could be seen as a sign that while the financial wisdom of the common currency is being quesitoned more widely, it’s political significance remains for countries on the preriphery of Europe: 

Membership is also an important signpost that a country is on the way to achieving Western European standards of living, an important goal for a former Soviet republic like Estonia that has long been among the Baltic states eager to develop.

Perhaps most important, membership is recognition of the hard work and sacrifice it took to keep Estonia’s bid on track. Estonia, along with Sweden, were the two countries with the smallest shortfalls between revenue and spending among all members of the 27-member European Union. Moreover, public debt in Estonia at 7.2 percent of gross domestic product is tiny compared with that of most other countries in the bloc.

“It’s a great day for Estonia,” Andrus Ansip, the Estonian prime minister, told Latvian state radio in an interview here. “We prefer to be inside, to join the club, to be among decision makers.”

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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