Only 7 of the 27 European Union (EU) countries are not members of the union’s common currency area – the euro area - and most of them are in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE): Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Except for Bulgaria, they are all far from meeting the membership convergence criteria, which is mainly a reflection of their governments’ lukewarm – or sometimes even hostile - attitude towards euro adoption in the past two decades. In contrast, other CEE states opted for an “as-early-as-possible” adoption of the common currency (Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, and the three Baltic states.

The time has come to revisit the pros and cons of euro adoption in the CEE region. What is the record of existing EMU-CEE countries under euro area membership? How this compares to their own expectations and to experiences of countries outside the EMU, particularly with regards to the post-pandemic inflation experience? Have plans in non-EMU countries are changing in light of these experiences as well as new challenges such as security issues in the wake of Russia’s war against Ukraine?

This panel of high-level policy makers and academics will look at this question from various complementing angles and will discuss prospects for euro adoption in non-eurozone countries. The keynote will be delivered by Hon. Peter Kažimír, Governor of the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), who previously served as Finance Minister as well. A panel discussion will follow with the speakers indicated above.

Meet our speakers and chair

Reiner Martin is Executive Director of the National Bank of Slovakia.

Piroska Nagy Mohacsi is a Visiting Professor of the LSE Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa.

Atanas Pekanov is a Monetary Economist WIFO Wien and Former Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria (via Zoom).

Agnieszka Smolenska is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx) and Assistant professor of the Florence School of Banking and Finance.

Angelo Martelli is Assistant Professor at the LSE European Institute.

More about this event

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