Slovak Euro Coins - Adopting The Euro

Adopting The Euro

In 2005, an official public contest for Slovak euro coin designs was held, which took place over two rounds. The deadline for the first round was 31 January 2005, after which the ten top designers chosen by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) were invited to make plaster reliefs of their designs. In the second round, the NBS called a public vote conducted from 12 November until 20 November 2005 on the ten designs that were picked from the over 200 submissions. On 21 November 2005, the results were made public; the most popular design was the Coat of arms of Slovakia. On 20 December 2005, the design for the Slovak euro coins was officially made public on the NBS website. Since then Slovakia has been doing economic reforms to be able to adopt the euro.

After three years of reforms, on 1 April 2008, the NBS announced their plan for withdrawal, disposal and destruction of the Slovak koruna notes and coins. On 7 May 2008, the European Commission approved the application and asked member states to endorse the bid during the EU finance minister's meeting in July 2008. Slovakia's 12 month inflation was 2.2% compared with 3.2% that is required. Annual inflation however was 3.6% for March 2008. Fiscal deficit was 2.2% versus the reference value of 3.0%. And finally the government debt ratio was 29.4% of GDP in 2007, well below the maximum ratio of 60.0%.

On 3 June 2008 European Union finance ministers gave Slovakia the green light to join the euro zone in 2009 while urging the country to be ready to fight inflation with tight fiscal policies. "We are happy to see Slovakia join the euro zone on January 1, 2009," Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, told reporters.

Slovakia's mint has been tasked to produce some 500 million euro and cent coins. As a preparation for the change on January 1, starting from November 2008, these coins will be distributed to businesses all over Slovakia.

On 17 June 2008, the European Parliament agreed to Slovakia's bid to join the euro zone from the start of 2009, urging the country to tighten fiscal policies to avoid inflationary risks. The assembly voted 589 to 17 with 86 abstentions to approve a report that said the European Union newcomer met all euro entry criteria. However, the parliament's role is consultative only. Slovakia's bid to become the euro zone's 16th member was approved by EU leaders. EU finance ministers set the final conversion rate of the Slovak koruna into the euro on 8 July 2008.

On 19 June 2008, the leaders of the EU Member States confirmed Slovakia's readiness to join the eurozone on 1 January 2009. “I congratulate Slovakia for meeting all the relevant criteria,” said the current President of the European Council and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša.

On 8 July 2008, The European Union formally invited Slovakia to join the European single currency and set the official rate at which korunas will be exchanged for euros - 30.1260 korunas to the euro.

On 5 September 2008, as part of the preparations for euro adoption, the NBS announced that by the end the year Slovakia planned to transport over €7 billion in banknotes from Austria and to mint coins worth €167 million in order to pre-stock itself with the new currency. Start-up packages containing the EUR equivalent of 500 Sk (16.60 €) were sold at all post offices from 1 December 2008. The package contained 45 Slovak euro coins with nominal values from 1 cent (0.30 Sk) to 2 euro (60.25 Sk).

A few days before the €-day, the government spent €6.5 million to educate the public about the new currency.