Estonia will adopt the euro in 2011

The EU Finance Ministers, meeting within the Ecofin Council on 13 July, gave their final go‑ahead for Estonia to change over to the European currency on 1 January 2011. The Council also set the conversion rate against the euro at 15,6466 Estonian kroonid.

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© European Central Bank, 2010

Estonia thus becomes the seventeenth Member State to use the euro. The last country to join the euro area before Estonia was Slovakia in 2009.

In order to adopt the European currency, a Member State has to fulfil several conditions; it must satisfy the convergence criteria concerning price stability, public deficit and public debt, exchange‑rate stability and long-term interest rates. The Heads of State and Government of the Union, meeting within the European Council on 17 June, had already welcomed the fact that Estonia complied with all these criteria.

Also on 1 January 2011, Estonian euro banknotes and coins will be introduced. All euro and cent coins have one common side and one side with a national design specific to the issuing country. Following a competition organised by the Central Bank of Estonia, the national side of the Estonian coins depicts the contours of a map of Estonia accompanied by the word "Eesti", which is the name of the country in Estonian.

More information:
Press release
Webcast of press conference
European Central Bank: the Euro
The Estonian Euro Coin (Euroweb site) (en) (et) (ru)