Expectations of a broader convergence of living standards worldwide have spread at the same time as emerging markets and mature democracies seek to attract foreign investment in order to accelerate economic growth. In this increasingly competitive global environment, the protection of property rights becomes a convergence criterion, together with openness to international markets for goods, services and assets, and a stable macroeconomy. In the EU, multilateral surveillance procedures and convergence programmes have been implemented to facilitate progress towards a medium-term orientation of macroeconomic policy. These practices may also provide benchmarks for emerging markets, blurring the difference between “transition” and “development”: in particular, they define “converging European transitions” for EU applicants. Given that emerging economies have experienced a substantial fall in their perceived standards of living after the financial crises of 1997-99, the ability to ...