Brussels, 16/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 16 July, the European Parliament voted by a large majority for Lithuania to join the eurozone on 1 January 2015.
In a press release, Werner Langen (EPP, Germany), the EP rapporteur on this issue, said that this was good news for Lithuania, the Baltic States and stability in Europe. He said that big reforms had been carried out in Lithuania since 2006 that have cut inflation, stabilised exchange rates, reduced the budget deficit and reduced the public debt to an acceptable proportion of GDP.
Lithuania meets all the eurozone accession criteria. Its average inflation over the past twelve months has been 0.6% (well below the 1.7% reference point); its public deficit was 2.1% of GDP in 2013 (reference value 3%) and its public debt 39.4% of GDP (well below the 60% reference level).
Lithuania will be the 19th member of the eurozone and third Baltic State to join the single country, following Estonia in 2011 and Latvia in 2014.
The General Affairs Council will give the final endorsement of the decision next week, but this is simply a formality because the European summit gave its go-ahead in June (see EUROPE 11110).
Lithuania joining the eurozone will change the decision-making process at the European Central Bank, where two groups of countries will be set up (see EUROPE 11105). (MB)