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Slovenia to Adopt Euro Next Year

The European Council (the heads of state or government of the European Union along with the President of the European Commission) has approved the application of Slovenia to join the euro area on January 1, 2007.

Slovenia will be the first of the 10 Member States that acceded to the EU on May 1, 2004 to adopt the euro. The other 9 countries – the Czech Republic , Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, and Slovakia – aim to join the euro area between 2008 and 2010.

Adoption of the euro signifies that Slovenia has fulfilled the "Maastricht" convergence criteria – that is, the country has achieved a high degree of price stability, sustainable government finances (in terms of both public deficit and public debt levels), a stable exchange rate and convergence in long-term interest rates. The European Council decides on the basis of reports by the European Commission and the European Central Bank the readiness of applicant Member States to join the euro area.

The Council also fixed the conversion rate between the Slovenian tolar and the euro at 239.64 Slovenian tolars to the euro.

Twelve of the EU’s 25 Member States currently use the euro as their currency: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Austria and Finland. Euro banknotes and coins have been in circulation since January 2002 and are now a part of daily life for over 300 million Europeans living in the euro area.

More about the euro: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/our_currency_en.htm 

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