COLLEGE MEETING: Commission releases 2018 Convergence Report: Review of Member States’ progress towards euro adoption

The Commission has published its 2018 Convergence Report which assesses Member States’ progress towards joining the euro area. The report is based on the convergence criteria, sometimes referred to as the ‘Maastricht criteria’, set out in article 140(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

The report covers the seven non-euro area Member States that are legally committed to adopting the euro: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. It finds that these Member States generally display considerable nominal convergence, but none of them currently meet all the formal conditions for joining the euro area. Two of these Member States, Bulgaria and Croatia, fulfil all of the convergence criteria, except for the exchange rate criterion as they are not members of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II). According to a new Eurobarometer survey, published today, support for joining the euro in the non-euro area Member States covered by the Convergence Report continues to increase. The Convergence Report by the European Commission is published in parallel with the Convergence Report by the European Central Bank (ECB). A press release and memo are available online.