Lithuania officially joined the euro zone

Since January 1 2015, Lithuania has officially entered the euro zone. About it on Thursday, 1 January, according to RBC.

The decision to join Lithuania in the euro zone was taken in the summer of 2014. Lithuania became the 19-th country to join the euro, and the last Baltic country to abandon its national currency.

In the New Year's address, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite stated that joining the euro zone is an opportunity to "grow and be a modern European state, set new goals for yourself and look to the future with confidence." Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius during the New Year festivities on the main square of Vilnius solemnly removed the first euro at an ATM.

According to the Lithuanian public television channel LRT TV, while in Lithuanian ATMs you can rent bills in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 euros. Banknotes denominated in 100, 200 and 500 Euros will not be loaded into ATMs yet.

In July 2014 of the year, the European Parliament approved the accession of Lithuania to the euro zone from January 1 of 2015 of the year. For this decision 545 votes were cast, against - 116, another 34 deputy abstained.

Lithuania entered the eurozone at the second attempt. In the 2006 year, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were refused, the reason for which was the excess inflation rates at the 0,1 ppt, RBC notes.

Estonia joined the euro zone on January 1, 2011, Latvia on January 1, 2014, writes the Dozhd TV channel portal.