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| Estonia joins crisis-hit euro club, others wary Posted: 01 Jan 2011 06:41 AM PST TALLINN (Reuters) - Estonia switched smoothly to the euro on Saturday, brushing off worries about a crisis in the currency club which is likely to put off bigger eastern European nations from joining for up to a decade.
The Baltic state of 1.3 million became the 17th euro zone country at midnight and was the first former Soviet state to adopt the euro, capping 20 years of integration with the West. Estonia sees the change as marking the end of its struggles since a 2009 recession lopped 14 percent off its output. It hopes to entice investors by removing fears of devaluation and make borrowing more secure for its people, many of whose mortgages are already in euros from top Nordic banks. "It is a small step for the euro zone and a big step for Estonia," said Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, who was the first to take euros out of a specially installed cash machine. "We are proud to be a euro zone member state." The central bank, whose governor will now help decide euro zone interest rates, said the changeover was smooth. "The money reached ATMs and retail stores in time at the end of the year," said deputy central bank head Rein Minka. Estonia will be the currency club's poorest member but its debt and deficit levels -- the cause of the crisis for some euro zone members -- are among the lowest in the bloc. In economic terms, the single currency bloc will barely notice the addition -- Estonia's GDP is 0.2 percent of the euro zone's 8.9 trillion euros. EASTERN SCEPTICS Poland, Hungary and other eastern European EU states are sceptical about joining the euro. They have all promised to join one day but want to see how the debt problems of Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal are solved. They also fear that losing flexible exchange rates will make them less competitive and less able to fight financial crisis. Polish central bank governor Marek Belka told newspaper Super Express Poland would join when there was "order" in the euro zone. "In the euro zone there are dramatic things happening, so why rush?" he said. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas has said the euro would not be to the country's advantage for a long time. Economists say the larger eastern EU nations may now not join before 2019-2020. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy used New Year addresses to show support for the euro. "The euro is the foundation of our prosperity," said Merkel. "Germany needs Europe and our common currency ... We Germans assume our responsibility, even when it is sometimes very hard." With a similar history of Nazi and Soviet occupation, all three Baltic states made joining Western structures their goals and joined NATO and the European Union in 2004. Latvia and Lithuania hope to adopt the euro in 2014 and have had their currencies pegged to the euro for years. The kroon will be converted at the rate of 15.6466 at which the currency was pegged to the euro. They will circulate together as legal tender for two weeks. (Additional reporting by Patrick Lannin in Stockholm; Editing by Patrick Graham, Lin Noueihed and Padraic Cassidy) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| Pope to hold peace summit with religious heads Posted: 01 Jan 2011 06:07 AM PST VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, worried over increasing inter-religious violence, will host a summit of world religious leaders in Assisi in October to discuss how they can better promote peace, he announced on Saturday.
Benedict told pilgrims and tourists in St Peter's Square the aim of the meeting would be to "solemnly renew the commitment of believers of every religion to live their own religious faith in the service of the cause for peace". He made the announcement hours after a bomb killed at least 17 people in a church in Egypt in the latest attack on Christians in the Middle East and Africa. The Assisi meeting will take place on the 25th anniversary of a similar encounter hosted by the late Pope John Paul in 1986 in the birthplace of St Francis. That meeting was attended by Muslim and Jewish leaders and heads of many other religions, including the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. John Paul called on all nations and groups in conflict to silence their weapons during the meeting. Most groups adhered. A main theme of the 1986 summit was the public repudiation of the concept of violence in the name of God. "Humanity ... cannot be allowed to become accustomed to discrimination, injustices and religious intolerance, which today strike Christians in a particular way," Pope Benedict said in his New Year's Day homily to 10,000 people in St Peter's Basilica on the day the Church marks its World Day of Peace. "Once again, I make a pressing appeal (to Christians in troubled areas) not to give in to discouragement and resignation," he said. ATTACK ON CHRISTIANS Hours earlier, in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, a bomb at a Coptic Christian church killed at least 17 people and wounded 43 as worshippers gathered to mark the New Year. The Egyptian interior ministry said it may have been the work of a foreign-backed suicide bomber. The attack in Muslim-majority Egypt was the latest against Christians that has worried Church officials. On Christmas Day, six people died in attacks on two Christian churches in the northeast of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, and six people were injured by a bomb in a Roman Catholic Church on the island of Jolo in the Philippines. In a message issued last month for the Jan. 1 peace day, the pope said Christians were the most persecuted religious group in the world today and that it was unacceptable that in some places they had to risk their lives to practise their faith. In November, 52 hostages and police officers were killed when security forces raided a Baghdad church to free more than 100 Iraqi Catholics captured by al Qaeda-linked gunmen. The Vatican fears that continuing attacks, combined with severe restrictions on Christians in countries such as Saudi Arabia, are fuelling a Christian exodus from the region. (Editing by Janet Lawrence) Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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