On 9 July 2013, the Ecofin Ministers gave the final approval on the euro adoption in Latvia. Latvia is therefore ready to adopt the euro on 1 January 2014. Third poorest country of the European Union will become 18^th member of the euro club. Latvia formally applied to join euro zone only in March, even though its currency, the lat, has been pegged to the euro after joining the European Union in 2004.

The decision to adopt euro brought relief also to the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. After the formal application in March, he triumphantly concluded that “the euro zone is again a club with a queue – not at the exit but at the entrance.”

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