"In recent years, Romania's accession to the euro zone has become a moving target. The last mentioned deadline is now 2019. We believe this new term is a very ambitious one and consider that a more realistic date of joining the Euro would be beyond 2021", a report of Erste "Accession to the euro area: a moving target" says, quoted by Mediafax.
Romania’s plans of joining the euro area remained unchanged even during the peak of the crisis, when the very existence of the euro was questioned while Hungary and Poland have put that goal on hold.
Romania's joining the Eurozone, a moving target since the country’s accession into the European Union, has been used as a "historic project" needed to serve as an anchor for economic decisions of governments, supported strongly in this regard by the National Bank of Romania.
"Over the last two decades, Romania's appetite for reform has been rather moderate and therefore such ambitious goals as the EU accession or obtaining the IMF safety belt were motivating factors that made Romania swallow the reforms bitter pills which otherwise it would have rejected, the said institutions having also the role of scapegoats for the unpopular decisions", the report said.
To adopt the euro, Romania must meet several criteria of nominal convergence, which are formal criteria for joining the Eurozone. For joining the euro, however, the real convergence criteria are also relevant, which provide a more accurate picture of the country's capacity to deal with the pressures of competitiveness in the Eurozone, Erste notes.