People who come from countries not in the Eurozone, does your country plan to join it any time? why/not?

5 comments

1. One of the 5 reservations, or opt-outs, negotiated which made Denmark join the European Community was exactly a monetary one. Now that the Danish krone is tied to the Euro anyway, it is possible to argue, that this opt-out has lost some of it’s meaning, and we might as well join the Euro, but a lot of Danes maintain a (soft) eurosceptic—in this instance a double meaning—view of the Union, either from a left-wing perspective, with concerns regarding the common labour market, industrial and ecological regulation, and so-on, or from a liberal/conservative perspective, where issues of sovereignity and national democracy might be more important.

2. Nope, there are no plans to ever adopt the euro whatsoever. We’ve already voted against it and all polls still point at the majority being against it even after 2 decades since the referendum. We aren’t likely to join anytime soon.

   Main arguments against are usually about independence and sovereignty and the lack of democratic support for it.

3. Poland commited to adopting Euro, but without any due date. And we both don’t fulfill formal requirements (this is not a problem if there would be a good will of both Eurozone and Poland) neither support for joining Eurozone is high. Personally I’m also sceptical, as in my opinion there are more disadvantages than advantages in our situation.

4. Maybe that’d be a fun way to mess with the system, join the eurozone, but stay out of EU.

   I suppose if we in the end do join, and Denmark and Sweden switch to euros, it might be pointless to clutch onto our kroner. But that’s really unlikely. And we’re still stubborn enough that we might just pass.

5. Nope, not currently. The population is actually pretty Eurosceptic and using Slovakia as a litmus and not seeing them really benefit much at all from adoption has most here believing maintaining our own Central Bank will allow for more surgical economic interventions during crises, which 2009 somewhat confirmed.

   Though economists on the whole believe it will improve foreign investment by removing barriers, people mostly just expect price increases without corresponding salary ones (as people claim happened in Slovakia), though it would be a boon for mortgages as the Euro has far lower interest rates. On the other hand, Czechia benefitted from being able to artificially depress it’s currency to boon exports, as our economy is very export heavy. [And this study from 2019 presents a bleak picture for adoption](https://www.dw.com/en/cep-study-germany-gains-most-from-euro-introduction/a-47675856). According to it only Germany and the Netherlands benefitted from adoption, with France and Italy the worst losers.

   Personally, I don’t care either way, I have accounts in both denominations, and Czechia being very cashless means I use my card most of the time anyway.