>Slovak here living in Czechia. Adopting euro would give you a seat at the ECB granting influence over monetary policy in the whole Eurozone.
This is my argument exactly. A seat gives a certain small amount if influence, the resulting policy will be an approximation of what is best for everyone. This may be pretty far from what is best for a developing country with fast growth if the majority is well developed countries with low growth.
Imagine you and your neighbour decide to pool your money and invest together. He is 65 years old and has 50k EUR, you are 21 years old and you have 1k. He prefers to put his money in a bank savings acct that will allow him to withdraw anytime (he's retiring soon) and he doesn't want any risk. You on the other hand don't mind risk at all, but you need a high rate of return (stocks would be good for you, maybe of the more "adventurous" kind).
If you pool your money he will have much more to say so you end up maybe with a 6 months term savings deposit to get a little more gain. You're both unhappy because that is not enough profit to you and it still locks up his money preventing him from choosing an early retirement. Compromises sometimes work for both sides, sometimes they don't work for anyone...
>You'd also get cheaper money (think mortgage rates going from ~7% (current rates in Poland) to less than 4% (current rates in Slovakia)).
You can get Euro denominated mortgages in Poland as well. As well as Swiss Frank, Dollar etc. A country does not have to get rid of its currency for people to enjoy lower interest rates in other currencies.
You can make an argument if you earn in PLN and take a mortgage in EUR it exposes you to the currency risk and it does. It is your personal choice. But there are plenty of jobs (usually higher paying) that pay a set amount of EUR or USD and it's often these kinds of people for whom these mortgages make sense.
We even have a long running scandal involving almost a million of people that got Swiss Frank mortgages over a decade ago that had interest rates below 1% and the banks structured these deals in such a way they made a killing on exchange commission. Basically people didn't realise they had to pay in PLN and the mortgage provider would convert to CHF applying their exorbitant conversion rates. There was no way to just pay in CHF. But this story is over a decade old and people have learned the lesson.
> This is my argument exactly. A seat gives a certain small amount if influence, the resulting policy will be an approximation of what is best for everyone. This may be pretty far from what is best for a developing country with fast growth if the majority is well developed countries with low growth.
The point is that all of the countries in the EU are well developed countries with similar growth and closely tied economies. The example you have given would be more accurate if you'd compare a 65yr old with 50k savings and a 55yr old with 40k savings. What would be the (ideal) alternative? Having custom currency with policy tailored for each region? Each industry? Each person? Sometimes there's more value in unity.
> You can get Euro denominated mortgages in Poland as well.
Have you tried getting one? I did. The bank deduces 10-15% from your income due to currency risk when calculating interest rate and max loan amount. There are plenty of folks working abroad and earning EUR instead of local currency. Ask them about their opinion on this.
This is my argument exactly. A seat gives a certain small amount if influence, the resulting policy will be an approximation of what is best for everyone. This may be pretty far from what is best for a developing country with fast growth if the majority is well developed countries with low growth.
Imagine you and your neighbour decide to pool your money and invest together. He is 65 years old and has 50k EUR, you are 21 years old and you have 1k. He prefers to put his money in a bank savings acct that will allow him to withdraw anytime (he's retiring soon) and he doesn't want any risk. You on the other hand don't mind risk at all, but you need a high rate of return (stocks would be good for you, maybe of the more "adventurous" kind).
If you pool your money he will have much more to say so you end up maybe with a 6 months term savings deposit to get a little more gain. You're both unhappy because that is not enough profit to you and it still locks up his money preventing him from choosing an early retirement. Compromises sometimes work for both sides, sometimes they don't work for anyone...
>You'd also get cheaper money (think mortgage rates going from ~7% (current rates in Poland) to less than 4% (current rates in Slovakia)).
You can get Euro denominated mortgages in Poland as well. As well as Swiss Frank, Dollar etc. A country does not have to get rid of its currency for people to enjoy lower interest rates in other currencies.
You can make an argument if you earn in PLN and take a mortgage in EUR it exposes you to the currency risk and it does. It is your personal choice. But there are plenty of jobs (usually higher paying) that pay a set amount of EUR or USD and it's often these kinds of people for whom these mortgages make sense.
We even have a long running scandal involving almost a million of people that got Swiss Frank mortgages over a decade ago that had interest rates below 1% and the banks structured these deals in such a way they made a killing on exchange commission. Basically people didn't realise they had to pay in PLN and the mortgage provider would convert to CHF applying their exorbitant conversion rates. There was no way to just pay in CHF. But this story is over a decade old and people have learned the lesson.