Groen licht EP voor toetreding Letland tot eurozone (en)

Latvia should join the euro on 1 January 2014, recommends the European Parliament in a resolution voted on Wednesday. This vote is in line with a European Commission recommendation and political backing from EU heads of state and governments at the latest EU Council summit.

"Latvia has made huge efforts to overcome the economic and financial crisis and I'm pleased to welcome it to the Eurozone from 1 January 2014", said Burkhard Balz i (EPP, DE), who authored Parliament's recommendation.

Parliament's recommendation was passed by 613 votes to 67 with 29 abstentions. In it MEPs praise the people of Latvia for their "extraordinary efforts to overcome the financial crisis".

However, the opinion also warns Latvia that it must maintain the pace of reform, strengthen its national economic governance structures and reduce its shadow economy.

The Latvian government needs to do more to remedy structural deficiencies in the labour market and to reduce poverty and growing income inequality, say MEPs. It should also do more to ensure that Latvian banks are sound, in particular by stepping up supervision of banks active in the non-resident deposit business, they add.

Finally, the opinion notes that Latvia's price stability is "very dependent" on commodity prices, particularly of energy. This problem is compounded by the fact that Latvia imports much of its energy needs from a single source and an effort should be made to remedy this, the text adds.

Next steps

The European Parliament plays a consultative role in scrutinising the fitness of prospective Eurozone countries. A final go-ahead is expected from EU finance ministers meeting on 9 July.