In its 2014 Convergence Report, which assesses the readiness to join the single currency of eight EU members, the Commission said Romania meets only three out of the five required criteria.
The country fulfills the requirements regarding the public debt and deficit levels, the ones on long-term interest rates and some of the necessary qualitative criteria. However, the inflation and exchange rate stability criteria were not yet fulfilled, the Commission said.
Apart from Romania, the 2014 Convergence Report reviews seven other EU countries, namely Lithuania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Sweden.
“These countries have made uneven progress on the road to euro adoption, but Lithuania stands out from this group as it now fulfils the convergence criteria,” the reported noted.
Therefore, the Commission proposed Lithuania joins the euro area on January 1, 2015, while the remaining seven countries will be subject to a new review in two years.