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Lithuania is an EU member state which joined the Eurozone by adopting the euro on 1 January 2015. This made it the last of the three Baltic states to adopt the euro, after Estonia (2011) and Latvia (2014). Before then, its currency, the litas, was pegged to the euro at 3.4528 litas to 1 euro. ==History== All members of the European Union, except Denmark and the UK, are required by treaty to join the euro once certain economic criteria have been met. The Lithuanian litas participated in ERM II since 28 June 2004, and was pegged to the euro at a rate of 3.45280 litai = €1. Lithuania originally set 1 January 2007 as their target date for joining the euro, and in March 2006 requested that the European Commission and the European Central Bank conduct an assessment on their readiness to adopt the currency. The Commission's report found that while Lithuania met four of the five criteria, their average annual inflation was 2.7%, exceeding the limit of 2.6%. As a result, the Commission concluded that "there should be no change at present to Lithuania's status as a Member State with a derogation."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Euro zone: Slovenia in, Lithuania on hold )〕 Lithuania is the only country initially to have been denied approval to adopt the euro after requesting a convergence check. In December 2006 the government approved a new convergence plan, which pushed the expected adoption date to post-2010 due to inflation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Adoption of the euro in Lithuania )〕 In 2007, Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas stated that he hoped for adoption around 2010–11.〔 〕 Generally high inflation, which reached a peak of 12.7% in June 2008〔(【引用サイトリンク】work= Eurostat & EuroGeographics for the administrative boundaries )〕 (well above the 4.2% limit of the time),〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=SEB: no euro for Lithuania before 2013 )〕 delayed Lithuania's adoption of the euro. By the time of the 2010 European debt crisis, the expected switch over date had been put further back to 2014. Lithuania expressed interest in a suggestion from the IMF that countries which are not able to meet the Maastricht criteria be able to "partially adopt" the euro, using the currency but not getting a seat at the European Central Bank.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Lithuanian PM keen on fast-track euro idea )〕 Interviews with the Foreign Minister and Prime Minister in May and August 2012 respectively highlighted that Lithuania still aimed to join the euro, but would not set a target date until the state of the eurozone post-crisis was clear.〔(【引用サイトリンク】date= 23 May 2012 )〕 During the 2012 Lithuanian parliamentary election campaign, the Social Democrats were reported to prefer delaying the euro adoption, from the previous 2014 target until 1 January 2015. When the second round of the elections were concluded in October, the Social Democrats and two coalition parties won a majority and formed the new government, and the coalition parties were expected to accept the proposed delay in adoption of the euro. When Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius presented his new government in December, eurozone accession as soon as possible was mentioned as one of the key priorities for the government. The Prime Minister said: "January 2015 is a feasible date. But things can also turn out, that we may try to adopt the euro together with Latvia in January 2014. Let the first quarter (of 2013) pass, and we'll give it a thought." However, in January 2013 the Prime Minister announced that the government and the Bank of Lithuania had agreed on a target date of 2015. In February 2013, the government of Lithuania approved a plan for euro adoption in 2015. According to figures from the Bank of Lithuania, Lithuania had met 4 out of the 5 criteria by October 2013, the exception being the government deficit of 3.2% of GDP, exceeding the limit of 3.0%.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Euro adoption criteria and their implementation )〕 The Lithuanian government expected this to decline to 2.9% by the first quarter of 2014.〔〔 In April 2014, the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs gave their preliminary consent for Lithuania to join the eurozone on 1 January 2015, having concluded that the country was complying with all the criteria according to economic data from the first months of 2014. Lithuania's parliament approved a euro changeover law in April 2014, and in their biennial reports released on 4 June the European Commission and European Central Bank found that the country satisfied the convergence criteria.〔http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27697611 BBC:Lithuania 'ready to join euro' in 2015 – EU Commission, 4.June 2014.〕 On 16 July the European Parliament voted in favour of Lithuania adopting the euro.〔(European Parliament greenlights Lithuania's euro adoption )〕 On 23 July the EU Council of Ministers approved the decision, clearing the way for Lithuania to adopt the euro on 1 January 2015.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lithuania and the euro」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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