Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti BULLETIN Vol. LXII No. 1/2010 70 - 80 Economic Sciences Series New Challenges for the Fulfillment of Nominal Convergence Criteria in the New Member States of the European Union in the Context of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis Camelia Milea, Alina Georgeta Glod, Iulia Lupu, Adina Criste Centre of Financial and Monetary Research “Victor Slăvescu”, Academy House, 13 Calea 13 Septembrie, sector 5, 050711, Bucharest, Romania email: camigheorghe75@gmail.com Abstract The financial and economic global crisis emphasized a series of imbalances in the new member states of the European Union, creating new challenges for these countries. Between 2009 and 2010 the economic growth has been and will still be seriously affected, as a consequence of the difficult credit conditions and the severe decrease of demand. The turbulences from the financial international markets produced a feeling of safety for eurozone countries, entailing many new member states to deal with the issue of accelerating euro adoption, taking into account the protection provided by the eurozone during the crisis. Nevertheless, in these conditions, the new member states of the European Union suffer great inconvenience in fulfilling nominal convergence criteria, as compared with the period before the crisis. In this article we propose to identify a series of new challenges for the fulfillment of nominal convergence criteria in the new member states in the context of the global financial and economic crisis and to make out possible obstacles for a quick adoption of the euro. Key words: monetary convergence criteria, fiscal convergence criteria, European integration process, global economic and financial crisis JEL Classification: F15, G01 Introduction Finding themselves in the process of catching up, the new member states have to make serious efforts to create economic structures similar to those of the old EU member states, in order to achieve a sufficient level of real convergence. The situation is not at all convenient for Central and East European Countries, as they are bound to simultaneously fulfill all nominal convergence criteria, facing the biggest difficulties in the case of inflation, exchange rate and budgetary deficit criteria. It is well known that in the catching up process, in the case of a floating exchange rate regime the price convergence can be done either by a nominal appreciation of the exchange rate or by a higher inflation or by the existence of both phenomena at the same time, while in the case of a fixed exchange rate regime, the price convergence can be achieved through higher inflation.