Euro adoption by EU member states


Currency Code Entry ERM II Central rate Official
target date
 Bulgarian lev BGN — 1.95583 —
 Czech koruna CZK — — —
 Danish krone DKK 1 January 1999 7.46038 Formal opt-out
 Hungarian forint HUF — — —
 Latvian lats LVL 2 May 2005 0.702804 1 January 2014
 Lithuanian litas LTL 28 June 2004 3.45280 —
 Polish złoty PLN — — —
 Romanian leu RON — — 1 January 2015
 Swedish krona SEK ——Not considered ——— De facto opt-out
 British pound

 Gibraltar pound

 GBP

GIP

 ——Not considered ——— Formal opt-out




Criteria 


  1. HICP inflation (12-months average of yearly rates): Shall be no more than 1.5% higher, than the unweighted arithmetic average of the similar HICP inflation rates in the 3 EU member states with the lowest HICP inflation.
  2. Government budget deficit: The ratio of the annual general government deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices, must not exceed 3% at the end of the preceding fiscal year.
  3. Government debt-to-GDP ratio: The ratio of gross government debt to GDP at market prices, must not exceed 60% at the end of the preceding fiscal year. Or if the debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds the 60% limit, the ratio shall at least be found to have "sufficiently diminished and must be approaching the reference value at a satisfactory pace".
  4. Exchange rate: Applicant countries should have joined the exchange-rate mechanism (ERM / ERM II) under the European Monetary System (EMS) for two consecutive years, and should not have devalued its currency during the last two years, meaning that the country shall have succeeded to keep its monetary exchange-rate within a +/- 15% range from an unchanged central rate.
  5. Long-term interest rates (average yields for 10yr government bonds in the past year): Shall be no more than 2.0% higher, than the unweighted arithmetic average of the similar 10-year government bond yields in the 3 EU member states with the lowest HICP inflation
Fulfillment of criteria
Convergence criteria (valid for March 2013)
Country HICP inflation rate
(12-months average
of annual rates)		 Budget deficit to GDP Debt-to-GDP ratio ERM II member Long-term interest rate
(12-months average
of 10yr bond yields)
Reference values max. 2.6%
(as of 28 Feb 2013)		 max. 3.0%
(Forecast of fiscal year 2012)		 max. 60%, or declining
(Forecast of fiscal year 2012)		 min. 2 years
(as of 28 Feb 2013)		 max. 4.89%
(as of 28 Feb 2013)
EU members (outside the eurozone)
 Bulgaria 2.5% 1.0% 18.9% No 4.16%
 Czech Republic 3.2% 5.2% 45.5% No 2.59%
 Denmark 2.1% 4.0% 45.6% 01999-01-011 January 1999 1.38%
 Hungary 5.2% 2.4% 78.6% (decreasing) No 7.43%
 Latvia 1.8% 1.5% 41.9% 02005-05-022 May 2005 4.17%
 Lithuania 3.0% 3.2% 41.1% 02004-06-2828 June 2004 4.63%
 Poland 3.2% 3.5% 55.8% No 4.73%
 Romania 3.8% 2.9% 38.0% No 6.48%
 Sweden 0.9% 0.2% 37.7% No 1.61%
 United Kingdom 2.7% 6.3% 89.8% (increasing) No 1.71%
Candidates for EU membership
 Croatia 3.9% 4.6% 53.6% No 5.91%
 Iceland 6.0% 1.7% 96.2% (decreasing) No 6.75% (22.Aug-28.Feb 2013)
 Macedonia 3.4% 3.8% 31.0% No No data
 Montenegro 4.1% (2012) 4.0% 52.0% No No data
 Serbia 7.3% (2012) 6.4% 59.2% No No data
 Turkey 8.4% 1.9% 36.3% No 8.14%
Potential candidates for EU membership
 Albania 2.0% (2012) 3.5% 63.8% (increasing) No No data
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2.2% (2012) 2.8% 43.7% No No data
 Kosovo 0.6% (2012) 2.8% 17.6% (estimated) No No data
  Criterion fulfilled
  Criterion potentially fulfilled
  Criterion not fulfilledAs of 2013, Latvia and Lithuania are the only non-eurozone countries belonging to the category of being ERM-II compliant without a Euro opt-out, and thus actively attempting to comply with all five convergence criteria for Euro adoption. If Latvia and Lithuania can comply with the reference limits just in one of the months during the first half of 2013, they will have qualified for a Euro adoption per 1 January 2014, provided that they remember to apply for ECB to conduct this extra compliance check, for the specific month in concern.