Brussels, 28/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - In Hungary, 2010 is no longer the irrevocable final date for adopting the euro. “There is now no official date for the introduction” of the euro, Hungarian economy minister Janos Koka told Dow Jones on Thursday. Indicating that the date for joining the euro area could still change, Mr Koka said that “if there is some delay after the adoption of the convergence plan, it will not be a disaster”. The Hungarian authorities are due to submit an updated convergence programme, more detailed than the one of January (see EUROPE 9107), to the Commission before 1st September. The relatively distant horizon of 2010 would seem to give the authorities the time to meet the Maastricht criteria, but they now have to redouble their efforts to correct the continuing public deficit. “The only objective is to bring the public deficit below 3% as soon as possible,” stressed Mr Koka, with forecasts being re-assessed this week: a deficit of 8.6% of GDP in 2006 (against 8% according to previous forecasts) and 5.9% in 2007 (compared with 5%).