Enlargement of The Eurozone

The enlargement of the eurozone is an ongoing process within the European Union (EU). All Member states of the European Union, except for Denmark, the United Kingdom and de facto Sweden, are obliged to adopt the euro as their sole currency when they meet the criteria. This includes: Complying with the debt and deficit criteria outlined by the Stability and Growth Pact, keeping inflation and long-term governmental interest rates below certain reference values, and minimum two years membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II). The obligation to adopt the euro is outlined by the accession treaties, and the European Commission decided in 2004 not to allow for any more separate euro adoption referendums to take place, except for the three countries (UK, Denmark and Sweden) previously having negotiated such a process as a prerequisite for euro adoption.

The eurozone currently comprise 17 EU states, of which the first 11 introduced the euro 1 January 1999 when it was electronic only. Greece joined 1 January 2001, one year before the physical euro coins and notes replaced the old national currencies in the eurozone. Subsequently, the following five countries also joined the eurozone on the 1st of January in the mentioned year: Slovenia (2007), Cyprus (2008), Malta (2008), Slovakia (2009), and Estonia (2011).

Latvia plans to adopt the euro on 1 January 2014 if they meet all five convergence criteria by the end of any month during the first half of 2013, and Lithuania announced its goal to do so in 2015. The remaining five states on the agenda (Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary) are all expected to qualify for euro adoption in 2016–2020. Denmark is not obliged to join, but a referendum on the abolition of the opt-out from eurozone membership is expected to be held during the next parliamentary term after elections no later than September 2015. Should the country decide to do so, it may join the eurozone rapidly as Denmark is already part of the ERM-II. The United Kingdom and Sweden have opted to stay outside of the ERM-II, and currently have no intention to join the euro.