Romania is at a non-stage as far as its accession to the Eurozone is concerned, President Iohannis said Thursday in northwestern Cluj-Napoca, adding that it is not good for Romania to get fixated on a deadline for accession.
'We have to fulfil certain conditions, which in principle we already do, but politicians were overzealous when they set 2019 as the deadline for our accession to the Eurozone. That is so unrealistic that not even the required technical committees are in place,' said Iohannis.
He added that 2015 was the last time when the latest developments in Romania's switchover to the European single currency were assessed.
'Somewhere in early 2015, I wanted us to be there in 2019, but that was neither realistic nor feasible. No assessment were made since to restate when to switch over, but it was agreed that we have to be better prepared so that when we get there we will have no new problems, given that once in the Eurozone many monetary policy levers are abandoned, levers that we are using and that helps us at this stage. Our 5-percent economic growth, compared with the one or two-percent growth of others, can be explained by the fact that we have moved easily using monetary policy tools. Specialists are arguing that Romania needs a somehow higher real convergence. A minimal convergence of 60 percent is generally acceptable and talks now focus on the idea that Romania has to pass this threshold once inside the Eurozone,' said Iohannis.
He added that Romania should not get fixated on a deadline for accession to the Eurozone.
'There is no deadline for us and I believe setting one is no good, given that the European Union is facing innumerable crises that we are not artfully managing, but we are barely managing. No deadline is not a problem. We get prepared in the most natural way, by economic growth, and we will wait and see when discussing a deadline for accession to the Eurozone is opportune,' said Iohannis.
Iohannis on Thursday attended a debate on the European Union between disintegration and reform and Romania's contribution to the consolidation of the European construction, held in Cluj-Napoca by the CITADEL think tank of the Babes-Bolyai University.
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