PRAGUE, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Czech coalition government failed to reach an agreement on the need to appoint a national coordinator for the euro adoption, Deputy Prime Minister Vit Rakusan said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.
Rakusan's Mayors and Independents (STAN), one of the ruling coalition parties, has called for setting up the post.
"Unfortunately, we did not agree on the need to appoint a national coordinator for the euro," Rakusan said on social media platform X. "I regret this because although the euro does not (yet) have the support of the majority of the public, doing nothing is rarely a good strategy." He called on continued debates on the euro adoption with experts and the public.
Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said in a statement that the cabinet discussed the analysis submitted by the National Economic Council of the Government (NERV) on the benefits and risks of the Czech Republic's entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II).
According to NERV's recommendations, the country should only enter the ERM II at the moment when there is agreement on the date of adoption of the euro.
The ERM II is a mechanism for fixing the participating currencies against the euro within a fluctuation band. It is a preparatory phase for euro adoption, and a member state of the European Union (EU) has to spend at least two years in ERM II before joining the eurozone.
In 2004 when the Czech Republic joined the EU, it committed to entering the eurozone once it satisfies the euro convergence criteria.
According to Stanjura, the country should meet most of the conditions for joining the eurozone this year, except the two-year membership of the ERM II.
"I fully agree with one of the NERV's conclusions, that there should be political agreement or wider public support for entering the ERM II," he said.
"The decision to adopt a common European currency should ideally be taken at the beginning of the mandate of one of the next governments so that the entire process is led by the same cabinet," the minister added. ■
