Isărescu said when we could join the euro. “I see that everyone makes the comparison as they like. Bulgaria entered the EU zone, what a shame for Romania…!”
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We will switch to the euro when we manage to bring the budget deficit to 3%, and you can see that it is not an easy task, Mugur Isărescu, the Governor of the National Bank of Romania, said on Wednesday at the press conference on the occasion of the presentation of the Inflation Report.
“Probably if the current program, which means bringing the deficit below 3% in the next 2-3 years works, probably in 5 years we can talk about entering the EU area,” he added.
The governor gave as an example the case of other countries that did not join the euro. “But why don't you ask yourself why Poland didn't enter? Why didn't Hungary enter? Why didn't the Czech Republic enter? So, shame on Romania that we're in the same group with…? I'm exaggerating what I told you now. We're in the same group with Poland, with Hungary, with the Czech Republic. And Poland, by the way, has public debt over 60% of GDP”
In order for the debt to fall below 60% in Romania, several good years will have to pass, Isărescu appreciates.
He recalled that until 2018, the Euro Transition Committee operated in the NBR. “Until 2018, we had meetings of a committee for the transition to the euro. Since 2017, we had also drawn up the schedule where to stop the value transport machines that would bring the cash in euros. They were going to stop in Oradea, Cluj, Sibiu, etc. The last meeting we held at the Romanian Academy, with Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă. We went to the Romanian Academy with all the political parties in 2018 and we talked about entering the euro zone. After that the topic disappeared… Indeed, the pandemic appeared, the war appeared,” Isărescu said. We did not meet the conditions. In 2013-2014-2015 we met the membership criteria. President Băsescu even set a target date. But then, it was politically considered that the public debt is too small and that we can use this advantage. And almost all the parties and governments that have lost have no longer kept to this fiscal target,” says Isărescu.
“And it wasn't just one party”
The current governor also spoke in August 2025 about Romania joining the euro.
“And there wasn't a single party that… they all followed this line, to press more or less on fiscal stimulation. In 2018 was the last meeting on this topic, if I recall, at the Romanian Academy. Then we gave up all the committees we had in order to switch to the euro. And we had about three committees, including a technical one, related to the part related to cash – how cash in euros is brought into the country, how is distributed. We were very advanced. Now, if the fiscal correction means 5 or 7 years, it means that we are still discussing the euro in 5-7 years,” Isărescu said.
Financial and banking analysts in Romania expect our country to join the euro zone in 2035, i.e. in 10 years, according to the results of a survey by CFA Romania. The anticipated values ranged from 5 years to 20 years, and in the survey one of the analysts was of the opinion that Romania will never join the euro zone (opinion that was not included in the calculation of the average).
