Lithuania and the euro

Lithuanian euro coins share a similar national side for all eight coins, and are expected to be issued from 2013 on. The differences between the coins are that one and two euro coins have vertical lines on the outer circle, the fifty, twenty and ten cent coins have horizontal lines on the outer circle, and the five, two and one cent coins have no lines on the outer circle. The design featuring the Vytis symbol and the word Lithuania was announced 11 November 2004, and was created by the sculptor Antanas Žukauskas.

However, a recent analysis of SEB bankas says that Lithuania cannot hope to adopt the euro before 2013 due to the high current inflation which reached 11% in October 2008, well above the Maastricht criterion of 4.2%.

Lithuanian euro design

For images of the common side and a detailed description of the coins, see euro coins.

Depiction of Lithuanian euro coinage | Obverse side

€ 0.01	€ 0.02	€ 0.05
The Vytis, the Coat of arms of Lithuania.
€ 0.10	€ 0.20	€ 0.50
The Vytis, the Coat of arms of Lithuania.
€ 1.00	€ 2.00	€ 2 Coin Edge
		Currently unknown
The Vytis, the Coat of arms of Lithuania.

Status

The Maastricht Treaty originally required that all members of the European Union join the euro once certain economic criteria are met. Lithuania meets 2 out of the 5 criteria.

	Convergence criteria
	Inflation rate 1	Government finances		ERM II membership	Long-term interest rate 2
		annual government deficit to GDP	gross government debt to GDP
Reference value	max 1.0%	max 3%	max 60%	min 2 years	max 6.0%
Lithuania (May 2010)	2.0%	8.4%	38.6%	Yes	12.1%
criteria fulfilled   criteria not fulfilled 1 No more than 1.5% higher than the 3 best-performing EU member states. HICP rate as published by the ECB. 2 No more than 2% higher than the 3 best-performing EU member states.

External links

• Adoption of the euro in Lithuania
• The Euro Information Website – Lithuania
• EU Information about the euro in Lithuania