The challenges of Euro adoption in Romania : some lessons from the Greek experience

Abstract

Romania belongs to the group of the new EU members that are committed by the Treaty to adopt the euro, which implies that they must strive to fulfill all the nominal convergence criteria. Analyzing the Greece’s monetary experience towards the EMU and its available policy instruments for this goal, this paper tries to derive some challenging lessons for Romania on its path to euro adoption. The present Greek debt crisis and the background of the global financial crisis are also taken into consideration. The Greek situation shows that an overly ambitious timetable and effort for adopting the single currency can be rather costly for the country concerned and the endeavor to improve the performance of the economy must be a permanent process and not be limited to satisfying the Maastricht convergence criteria.