“The Country is Not Ready for Euro Adoption,” Says Czech National Bank

The Czech Republic is not ready to meet the criteria for joining the Eurozone and the government should refrain from setting a date for adopting the euro, for now, a document presented by the finance ministry and the Czech National Bank says.

The Czech Republic, one of the seven EU countries that do not use the common EU currency, committed to adopting the euro when it joined the bloc in 2004, though it is up to member states to decide on the date for introducing the euro.

But “the Czech Republic is very unlikely to meet the benchmarks of any of the Maastricht criteria in 2023,” the document presented Wednesday writes.

In November, Prime Minister Petr Fiala confirmed to journalists that “the country will not adopt the euro under his current government. For me, it is really a question of what is beneficial for the Czech Republic and Czech citizens. During the term of the government I have the honour to head, the adoption of the euro will not be a topical issue”.

He added that experts also differed on the benefits of adopting the common European currency.

Speaker of the TOP 09 and the lower house Pekarová Adamová said that although the commitment is not in the current program statement of the cabinet, the next government’s program should already include the date.

Croatia joins the euro

The European Union has given Croatia the green light to begin using the euro from next year.

The country will join 19 other EU member states that use the currency.

It will adopt the currency from 1 January 2023, making Croatia the latest nation to join the eurozone since Lithuania in 2015. From next year, it will mean that just seven EU countries still use their own currency.

In total, seven EU countries don’t use the euro: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden.