拉脱维亚将成为欧元区第18个成员国

欧盟委员会确认，东欧波罗的海沿岸国家拉脱维亚已经满足了加入欧元区所需达到的各项条件，已被批准自2014年1月1日起成为欧元区第18个成员国。加入欧元区的五项条件包括通胀率低、长期利率低、汇率稳定、公共债务低，及赤字低。拉脱维亚一直努力加强与西欧的联系，减少对俄罗斯的依赖。欧盟经济及货币事务专员瑞恩表示，拉脱维亚为加入欧元区所做的努力表现了其对欧元的信心，“那些预言欧元区会解体的人都错了”。

不过，欧洲央行同时警告说，拉脱维亚银行体系内的大量外国存款将成为重大金融稳定风险，其经济结构也存在一些长期不可持续的问题。拉脱维亚加入欧元区还须得到欧洲理事会和欧洲议会的批准。目前，欧委会已经正式提请欧洲理事会近期批准拉脱维亚从2014年1月1日起启用欧元。欧洲议会和欧洲理事会有望在7月正式批准这一提议。

欧元区目前的17个成员国包括：奥地利、比利时 、芬兰 、法国 、德国 、爱尔兰、意大利、卢森堡、荷兰 、葡萄牙 、西班牙 、希腊 、斯洛文尼亚、塞浦路斯、马耳他 、斯洛伐克、爱沙尼亚。

Latvia will become the 18th country to use the euro after being approved for membership by the European Commission.

In a report, the Commission confirmed that the Baltic state had met the criteria for joining the single currency.

Latvia is keen to strengthen ties with western Europe and reduce its dependency on Russia.

Officials said the eurozone had defied those who predicted it would collapse under the sovereign debt crisis.

It has had a financial crisis of its own at a time when it had a policy of fixing its exchange rate against the Euro. It chose to stick with that policy. Latvia did not seek to regain lost competitiveness by devaluing the currency, which many countries have done in past financial crises.

Instead, it followed the path of troubled countries such as Greece and Ireland already using the Euro and went for what's called "internal devaluation", restoring competitiveness through austerity.

Although not a Eurozone member, Latvia in effect accepted the constraints that membership would have imposed. It has been very painful.

Economic activity is recovering but it is even now 12% below its pre-crisis peak. Unemployment is also moving in the right direction but it remains high at 12.4%, despite significant emigration.

The country will start using the currency at the beginning of 2014 after meeting the criteria for membership, including low inflation and long-term interest rates, as well as low public debt.

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said Latvia's desire to adopt the euro was a sign of confidence in the single currency.

"Those who predicted a disintegration of the euro...were simply wrong," Rehn told a news conference.

The BBC Brussels correspondent, Matthew Price, said that unlike some established members of the zone, Latvia was well within the economic limits set by Brussels for joining.

"In much of Eastern Europe there's widespread enthusiasm - certainly among policy makers - for joining the single currency," he noted.

"However, polls suggest that many in the country are worried the switch could drive prices higher."

Anti-euro parties won more than half of the vote in elections in the capital, Riga, last weekend.

Latvia underwent one of Europe's toughest austerity programmes after the 2008-2009 financial crisis knocked a fifth off its GDP.

It received a 7.5bn euro bailout in 2008, but it has now repaid the loans.

The membership still has to be approved by EU leaders and the European Parliament, but that is seen as a formality.

EU finance ministers are expected to sign off the accession in July.

The European Central Bank (ECB) also gave its blessing to Latvia on Wednesday ahead of the Commission's announcement, but warned high foreign deposits in its banks were a risk to financial stability.

"The reliance by a significant part of the banking sector on non-resident deposits as a source of funding, while not a recent phenomenon, is again on the rise and represents an important risk to financial stability," the ECB said.

Euro entry criteria:

Low inflation

Low long-term interest rates

A stable exchange rate

Low public debt

Low public deficits