Slovakia Adjusts to the 'Teuro'

There's a widespread belief that prices will climb as a result of the country's recent switch to the European currency

By Lubos Palata

It is 15 minutes past midnight. A short while ago, the last of the New Year's fireworks exploded over the Danube. The show of cascading lights was exceptional in that it was clearly visible. No foggy haze concealed the fireworks this time, as has happened every other time I've spent New Year's Eve in Bratislava. While I can't say that I really noticed the "euro theme" that the show's organizers had promised, the spectacle did seem rather long and impressive, given the modest means of this small Central European capital. But there weren't many of the city's residents gathered on the New Bridge and the shoreline to actually witness the fireworks. Most Bratislavans had abandoned their frozen but snowless city for the holidays to spend a more pleasant Christmas in the mountains.

"The teuro is coming, let's not get too excited," one of the few Bratislavans watching the show notes ironically. "Teuro" is a play on words, combining "euro" with the German teuer (expensive), reflecting the widespread belief that the European currency brings with it higher prices. Rather than Slovaks, it seems for the most part that foreigners have come to Bratislava tonight to celebrate the arrival of the euro. Their strong presence here is testimony to the miracle of cheap airline tickets, a factor that unites Europe 10 times more effectively than the Lisbon Treaty and the European Commission put together.

The tourists, who in recent years have included a noticeably large number of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, were the only ones lining up at the bank machines right after midnight to see if the promised euros would come out. But even they overlooked my local Slovenska Sporitelna bank machine on Hviezdoslavovo Square. And so I was able to calmly insert my Slovak debit card, punch in my PIN, and, for the first time in my four years of living in Slovakia, decide whether I wanted 10, 20, 50, or 100 euros rather than the Slovak koruna. I chose a Slovenska Sporitelna machine, having received a tip from Igor Barta, the government's commissioner for euro matters, that it was the best-prepared Slovak bank for the changes. Slovenska Sporitelna is, of course, a unit of the Austrian Erste Bank Sparkasse, which has been using the euro since it was launched. My source proved to be bang on. After a few seconds of whirring noises, the bank machine produced a crisp, new 20-euro banknote, just as it would have done in 15 other EU countries. Then, to confirm my transaction, the machine printed out a paper slip stating that some 600 Slovak korunas had been removed from my account.

My little experiment on a dark Bratislava square amounts to an experience that Poles, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and even Slovakia's comparatively richer former compatriots in the Czech Republic will not have in their own countries for another few years. Following Slovenia, Slovakia is now only the second post-communist country to adopt the euro. In so doing, the Slovaks have broken away from their post-communist neighbors in Central Europe and definitively put to rest their country's image as a laggard in the Visegrad Four: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

RICH MAN, POOR MAN

Since the breakup of Czechoslovakia at the beginning of 1993, Slovakia's public life has been marked by a number of characteristics that I, as a Czech, felt were unenviable. I definitely never envied the Slovaks for their former authoritarian-style prime minister, Vladimir Meciar, or for the series of weak presidents they've had since becoming independent or for the seemingly ubiquitous presence of ex-communists in their society. I also never envied them for their Slovak koruna. Created when the Czechoslovak federation ceased to exist, the new Slovak currency had all the characteristics of the rough-and-ready currencies of other newly independent post-communist states, right down to the would-be modern look of its banknotes and coins.

When it was launched, the Slovak koruna had a 1-to-1 exchange rate with the Czech koruna, but it quickly weakened.