“Ovidius” University Annals, Economic Sciences Series Volume XX, Issue 2 /2020 Euro Adoption in Romania: An Exploration of Convergence Criteria Georgiana-Loredana Schipor “Ovidius” University of Constanta, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Romania
[email protected] Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze the position of Romania towards the Maastricht criteria, starting from the assumption that meeting the nominal convergence criteria is no longer enough for the Romanian adoption of euro. The most significant risks that the artificially integrated countries must face after the accession to the Euro Area were identified, using a large number of economic indicators that were distilled in order to design the Romanian progress in the process. The Romanian entrance into the Eurozone emphasize its major cost: the loss of monetary policy independence. The current methodological approach is twofold. First, the nominal and real convergence criteria were examined based on one-point-in-time approach. Second, it was considered the Romanian people perception about the adoption of the euro currency in accordance with a sequence of key-events suggesting a significant change due to multiple abandoned adoption targets, Brexit event or the pandemic context. Key words: nominal convergence, real convergence, Euro Area, Romania J.E.L. classification: F15, F44, E52 1. Introduction The European monetary integration is subject to a permanent debate in the Romanian context, the opinions being in the direction that meeting the nominal convergence criteria is no longer enough for the Romanian adoption of euro. If the cyclical economic events are not correlated among the Member States, the catalysts efforts transform into a significant risk the artificially integrated countries.