The European Parliament approved in majority the admission of Lithuania in the Eurozone, which is to become the 19th member state effective on the 1st of January 2015.

The admission to the single currency of the small Baltic country was approved with 545 votes in favor, 116 against and 34 abstentions. The Parliament’s opinion on this issue was only advisory.

This development had already received the go-ahead back in June, from the European Commission, the European Central Bank, followed by Eurozone’s Ministers of Finance, who felt that Lithuania has presented a “high level of sustainable convergence with the euro area” and that it fulfills the necessary requirements.

On the 23rd of July it is expected that all Member States of the European Union will give the green light .

Vilnius sees the euro as a firewall against Russia and a way to strengthen its political power in Europe. Lithuania, the Baltic country with a population of 3,000,000 people and a member of the EU since 2004, follows its neighboring Estonia and Latvia, which have already joined the eurozone in 2011 and 2014 respectively.

The young conservative MEP from Lithuania Lantsmpergkis grandson of the “father” of the independence of Lithuania Vytautas Lantsmpergkis, underlined yesterday to the European Parliament that “Europe and the euro are a safe harbor of geopolitical peace”.

While, Viligia Blinkevikioute of the Socialist MEP stated that “People will feel the positive impact of the euro, thanks to lower interest rates that will contribute to growth and investment that we have an urgent need”.
The rapporteur of the resolution, German conservative Werner Langen, noted that Lithuania has “a level of steady growth, and reduced inflation despite high energy dependence (…), a reduced public debt, a limited deficit ‘and all that’ despite the economic crisis”.