Eight EU members fail to join the euro

FRANKFURT, Germany - None of the eight European Union (EU) member states willing to join the now 17-member eurozone has met membership criteria, the European Central Bank (ECB) said on Wednesday.

In its Convergence Report 2012 released on Wednesday, the ECB said the eight countries, namely Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden, all have failed to fulfill necessary requirements to join the euro.

The ECB publishes a Convergence Report at least once every two years on the progress made by EU member states that have not yet adopted the euro towards joining the single currency.

Ten of the EU's 27 member countries have not yet done so, but Britain and Denmark have opt-out clauses, allowing them not to join the euro.

The report examines the prospective eurozone members with regard to their track record on inflation, government finances, exchange rates, long-term interest rates and legal convergence.

Over the 12-month reference period from April 2011 to March 2012, three countries, namely Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Sweden, recorded 12-month average inflation rates below the reference value. In the other five countries, inflation was well above the reference value, despite a relatively weak economic environment in most countries, according to a summary of the report.

EU countries are also required to peg their currencies to the euro for at least two years in order to join the single currency zone. Only Latvia and Lithuania met this criterion, according to the report.

Despite the debt crisis, Latvia recently reaffirmed its intention to join the euro. Dace Kalsone, head of Latvia's euro introduction project, was earlier quoted as saying that Latvia could join the euro area in the summer of 2013.

As for legal convergence, the report said the legal framework in none of the eight countries examined is fully compatible with all requirements for the adoption of the euro as laid down in the Treaties and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the ECB.