Every Estonian's potential prosperity has been kidnapped and taken as ransom in the name of getting into the Euro zone. To witness this plummeting of living standard can only be compared with the days when the Estonian Kroon was forcefully ransomed against the Russian Rouble. Today's politicians represent the interests of the Estonian people to the same extent that occurred in the days of the Second World War, only that these days they are much more sophisticated at covering up their motives.

First off, the Kroon hasn't been a sovereign curency in years. It's been either tied to the D-mark or Euro for years and eesti has no control over it's monetary policy.

Second, an independent currency as small as the Kroon will have a tough time surviving in this day and age when a medium sized hedge fund in conneticut could easily make a run on it and bring the country to it's knees. Just look at iceland.

The kroon being tied to another currency only shows its strength, not its weakness, unlike what the previous critic wrote. If you want to drag the Kroon on a downward spiral, that can be done as per the last comment. If you want to show that the Kroon is a strong currency that has weathered economic storms, that can also be seen by its being pegged to the Euro. The fact is that the Euro in itself will not solve Estonia's economic problems. In fact it's advantages will only benefit a very narrow strata of society. The last Estonian economic boom was the result of massive local borrowing and certainly not the result of investment from abroad. Most investment that did exist has now moved elsewhere across the globe. There is very little known reason why the Euro should bring investment back unless average wages drop further and job security is further eroded and subordinated the interests of the international stock market. Only then can we be convinced that the Euro will succeed. And knowing the motives of the Estonian government, everything will be done to keep wages as low as possible, plummeting further the average standard of living here in order to encourage the Euro's success in the next few years.

The Euro is not as strong a currency now as it was, say, a year and a half ago. There are indications that the Euro could end up lagging behind other currencies, because political and economic visions about the future of the EU are now looking decidedly sterile. Ahto Lobjakas had a very interesting article about this problem recently in Postimees.