Lithuania aims to adopt the euro by 2015 at the latest
Those spending their holiday in Lithuania still have to pay in litas, the current currency of the Baltic state on the Baltic Sea, at restaurants and hotels in Vilnius and elsewhere. However, Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania’s president, has made it one of her most pressing goals to bring her country into the eurozone very soon and establish the EU’s common currency in Lithuania as well. Grybauskaite’s target date is 2015, although, according to her, adopting the euro in Lithuania a year earlier would also be realistic. Following the country’s accession to the European community of nations in 2004, the introduction of the EU currency would be another milestone in the still-young history of Lithuania, which only gained its independence in 1991.
Lithuania aims to adopt the euro by 2015 at the latest
Date: 30/09/2026
To avoid stumbling on the way to the euro and bring the EU currency to Lithuania as soon as possible, the president has a detailed road map in mind. She revealed some of it in an interview with a Latvian newspaper in recent days. The first priority, she said, was to put Lithuania’s fiscal policy back on a solid footing, after the Baltics were hit particularly hard by the economic crisis. Following the sometimes dramatic losses suffered by the national economy in 2009, the country should now be set for a strong recovery, which the government in Vilnius intends to support with appropriate projects, Grybauskaite told the paper.
The president also had a suitable answer to the certainly justified question of what might persuade the EU to introduce the euro in Lithuania as well. She cited Lithuania’s decision so far not to seek financial assistance from the EU or the International Monetary Fund during the economic crisis as one of her country’s biggest advantages. Other Baltic countries, such as Latvia, had made use of support from the EU and the monetary fund and were therefore at a disadvantage compared with Lithuania in this respect, the politician believes. Lithuania’s refusal of international funds is explained by its desire to preserve some degree of independence from the EU, with or without the euro.
Kai Rebmann
