Slovakia gets greenlight to adopt euro
BRUSSELS (AFP) — EU finance ministers gave Slovakia the final greenlight on Tuesday to adopt the euro on January 1, 2009, leaving the ex-communist country less than six months to prepare for the changeover, an EU official said.
The ministers also set the definitive conversion rate with one euro worth 30.1260 koruna, the official said.
The ministers' rubberstamp of approval at a meeting in Brussels was the last EU obstacle Slovakia faced on the long path to becoming the sixteenth member of the eurozone.
The European Commission and the European Central Bank ruled in May that Slovakia met the tough economic criteria for joining, lifting the biggest obstacle to Bratislava's euro ambitions.
Slovaks are divided, however, about being the first central European nation to join the eurozone, with many of the nearly 5.5-million strong population fearful the currency switch could drive up inflation.
