“It’s a pity that we have been overtaken by Latvia, which plans to adopt the euro in 2014. I’m afraid it may happen that some people living in North Lithuania and businessmen will be able to carry out financial operations in Latvia’s commercial banks from 2014. It would be much better if we adopted the euro together with Latvia,” Butkevičius said during an online conference hosted by the news portal delfi.lt on Thursday.
“First of all, my goal is to adopt the euro in Lithuania in 2015, which means that we will have to implement stringent fiscal policy and comply with Maastricht criteria. It means that our public debt will not be able to go up,” Butkevičius said.
Lithuania's incumbent government, led by Andrius Kubilius, earlier declared its aspiration to adopt the euro in 2014. However, specific timeframe has not been specified since the spread of the debt crisis.
Lithuania aimed to switch to the euro in 2007 but was refused entry because its inflation rate was above the Maastricht limit. Estonia joined the euro zone at the beginning of this year.
In order to join the eurozone, a country must meet Maastricht criteria on price stability, public finances, exchange rate stability, and long-term interest rates.
