Romania’s President calls for talks on Eurozone entry strategy

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis will hold consultations with political parties to reach a national political consensus on Romania’s Eurozone entry, the Presidential Administration announced on Thursday. Iohannis had a meeting with Prime Minister Victor Ponta, Finance Minister Eugen teodorovici and central bank Governor Mugur Isarescu to talk about Romania’s objective of joining the euro area. They agreed that a national political consensus would allow Romania to adopt a national strategy for joining the Eurozone and a rigorous calendar of economical, monetary, legislative and institutional measures to help Romania have a stable and predictable schedule. The President, PM and central bank Governor also decided that a committee should be created that will coordinate this project. The Romanian Government announced in May 2014 that Romania planned to join the Eurozone on January 1, 2019. However, some analysts doubt that the target is achievable. Even Governor Isarescu recently said that Romania needed a roadmap with all the steps it has to make to join the euro area and that just announcing a date for this is was not enough. “It’s not an easy process, but a country project that’s difficult and has n components. I don’t think that these talks should be held in secret, but that they should be publicly debated,” Isarescu said. Central Bank official: Romania meets all nominal indicators for euro area entry BVB president believes Romania’s Eurozone entry should be a national project, analysts think it’s a very difficult task Erste: 2021, a more realistic term for Romania to join the Eurozone Analysts: Romania needs real convergence to join Eurozone in 2019 editor@romania-insider.com