At the request of the European Finance Ministers, the European Central Bank decided on Friday 10 July to integrate Bulgaria and Croatia to the ‘ERM II’ mechanism, which is considered to be a stepping stone to the adoption of the single currency.
This dossier had been discussed by the Finance Ministers of the euro area on Thursday and the European Union on Friday, on the basis of the convergence reports published by the European Commission and the ECB in June (see EUROPE 12504/22). According to the Commission, Croatia is the best prepared country at this stage.
According to the outgoing president of the Eurogroup, Mário Centeno, “Bulgaria and Croatia have been working on preparatory commitments for entering both the ERM II mechanism and the banking union”. There has been “much progress” in this direction, he added on Thursday 9 July, reporting “confidential” discussions because of their impact on financial markets.
Membership in the ERM II mechanism takes 2 years and an additional year is needed for logistical preparations, so that actual euro-area membership is not expected before 2023.
See ECB communiqué for Bulgaria (https://bit.ly/2BXkvKL ) and Croatia (https://bit.ly/3gXWsKL ).
Lithuania is the latest country to join the euro area, in January 2015 (see EUROPE 11223/3). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)