Latvia Loves Euro

From Yahoo UK:

"Latvia: the land that still loves the euro"

The European single currency may currently be unloved by many of the people using it thanks to the ongoing debt crisis on the continent, but there remains one small outpost of euro-enthusiasm. Far away from the corridors of the European Commission and European Central Bank, the Baltic state of Latvia is gung-ho about swapping its currency, the lats, for the euro. The plan is to meet all the Maastricht criteria governing euro adoption by the end of this year in order to qualify to switch from the lats to the euro in January 2014. "We have to be ready, regardless of what happens with Greece or in other countries," Finance Minister Andris Vilks told AFP. "Everything that's happening at the moment is good, whether it's fiscal union, in banking or whatever. We cannot miss this opportunity."

Struck by the world's deepest recession in 2008-2009, Latvia imposed a draconian austerity drive in part to ensure it could hold its course to meet the Maastricht criteria, which are meant to ensure robust public finances. Another goal was to maintain the lats' peg to the euro, a longstanding plank of Latvia's economy policy. But even if Latvia meets all the criteria so routinely flouted by existing eurozone members, the European Commission and ECB must both give their assent. The fact that neighbouring Estonia was admitted to the troubled eurozone in 2011 under similar circumstances would make any refusal highly controversial. While getting the euro is the obsession of Latvia's policy-making elite, the public appears sceptical -- on the surface at least. An August survey of more than 1,000 Latvians by the Latvijas Fakti pollster showed that just 35 percent supported adopting the euro, with 59 percent declaring themselves against and six percent undecided. However, most analysts agree that what looks like a high degree of euro-scepticism may not be as strong as it first seems. University of Latvia expert Ivars Ijabs says the question of euro adoption is seen less as an issue of economics than of reinforcing a European identity and national security -- further anchoring the former Soviet-ruled nation of two million in the European Union, which it joined in 2004.

^ I don't understand why countries would still want to join the Eurozone (especially considering that some countries in the Zone may be leaving it soon.) I didn't think Estonia switching to the Euro in 2011 was a good idea and don't think Latvia should join it yet (although it won't until 2014 and things could change by then.) I understand that Estonia and Latvia were occupied and forced into the Soviet Union from 1940-1941 and then again from 1944-1991 and they are trying to do everything they can (joining the EU and the Schengen) to separate themselves from that dark past and to create alliances with Western Europe to help make sure the Russians don't come back as occupiers, but you don't have to join the Eurozone to ensure that doesn't happen again. ^

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/latvia-land-still-loves-euro-232334512.html