Central Bank governor Isarescu: Setting target date for adopting euro only apparently simple

National Bank of Romania (BNR) Governor Mugur Isarescu said in this central-western Romanian city on Monday that Romania currently meets the convergence criteria stipulated in the Maastricht Treaty, but stressed that setting a target date for a country to adopt the euro 'might seem a simple matter, but it isn't'.

Isarescu reiterated he is a staunch supporter both of the single currency and of the European Union banking union and said that as far as the achievement of these two projects in Romania is concerned 'the matter is not if, but when they are achieved'.

'To stay out of the banking union on the long term is not an option for a European Union member, therefore it is also not for Romania', the Central Bank head told the first annual scientific conference of the Romanian economists in the academic circles from abroad organised by the Economic Sciences and Business Management College with Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca.

Speaking of the readiness of five countries — Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Romania — to adopt the euro, Isarescu said that in his opinion three conditions should be met: the sustainable, 'not accidental, not forced and not temporary' fulfilment of the nominal convergence criteria; attaining a relatively high level of the convergence of the income per capita; and the new institutional framework of the euro zone should prove its efficiency in preventing and combating the imbalances. AGERPRES