EU membership since 2004 and efforts to meet the criteria for adoption of the euro in January 2008 caused their own challenges as Malta’s government introduced often unpopular measures to reduce the deficit to below 3 per cent¸ cut back levels of public debt to below 60 per cent of GDP and rein in inflation and unemployment. It may have been tough¸ but results proved the efforts successful: Euro adoption went ahead as planned on January 1st 2008 in a well-managed and stringently supervised transition that remained smooth throughout the year.