The cost of transferring to the euro France is making its first estimates of the cost of physically transferring from the franc to the euro in 2002. It is now admitted that the operation will be complex and costly and that it risks representing a major disturbance for the public. French politicians are becoming increasingly worried about this, especially since various important elections are being held in France during the change-over, notably parliamentary and presidential elections in 2002. Banks will encourage new customers to open their accounts in euros. France has decided to shorten the transition period from 6 months to six or eight weeks, beginning on 1 st January 2002.
Moves are afoot to pay all MEPs the same rate.
Currently, their salaries differ according to salaries for national members of parliament in their home countries. The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Janos Martonyi, said in Berlin on 7 th June that any delay in the EU enlargement process could unleash political instability in the region. This is not the first time that the Hungarian government has made such dire warnings about the dangers of a delay in the enlargement process. The numbers of people allegedly killed in the Kosovo war has been going sharply down ever since the US State Department suggested in April 1999 that 500,000 may have been killed. Now, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva has said that some 3,368 persons remain unaccounted for as a result of the recent conflict in Kosovo.