Slovenia would like that the June 2006 EU summit to decide whether the country will join the eurozone. This would give the country ample time to manufacture euro coins before the planned 2007 euro changeover, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk said on Tuesday.
Bajuk, who will pass this proposal on to the European Commission, discussed the country's euro adoption programme with the EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia at the margins of today's session of EU finance ministers.
Almunia is in charge of drafting the Convergence Report for the Commission, which will establish whether the candidates for eurozone, especially the three countries set to adopt the currency in 2007, meet all the criteria of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II).
Bajuk wants the report drafted before 28 June 2006, when Slovenia finishes its two-year waiting period for adopting the euro, as set in the ERM II.
However, if the report is drafted after that date and the EU summit only takes place in the autumn, Slovenia will have little time to forge the money, as an international tender would probably be necessary to select the coins manufacturer, Bajuk explained.
The minister was otherwise confident that Slovenia would shortly meet the most strict criterion, namely the inflation rate.
Bajuk moreover said that Slovenia already meets the remaining criteria: budget deficit, suitable longterm interest rates, and public debt under 60% of GDP.
According to the new convergence programme, which Ljubljana has to send to Brussels by the end of 2005, Slovenia's budget deficit reached 1.7% instead of the announced 2.1% of GDP. This figure is to decrease to 1% by 2008, the minister said.
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