Latvia and the Euro
Latvia became the 18th Member State to adopt the euro, on January 1, 2014, on the 15th anniversary of the launch of the euro in 1999, 18 Member States and 333 million Europeans already shared the same currency. Commercial banks received euro banknotes and coins in advance from the Latvian Central Bank, the Bank of Latvia, and have in turn supplied euro cash to shops and other businesses.
On 5 March 2013, Latvia formally asked the Commission to deliver an extraordinary convergence report with the aim of joining the euro from 1 January 2014. On 5 June, the Commission concluded that Latvia meets the criteria for adopting the euro and on 9 July, the
EU Finance Ministers took the formal decision opening the way for Latvia’s adoption of the euro. Thereafter, Latvia started preparing the changeover to the euro by implementing its national changeover plan, providing all the details for the organisation of the introduction of the euro and the withdrawal of the lats.
With Latvia’s accession to the euro area on 1 January 2014, the European monetary area was enriched in two ways: first, by the arrival of the new Latvian euro coins and second, by the addition of a new spelling of the word "euro". As the Latvian language does not contain the combination of letters "eu", Latvians themselves colloquially refer to their future currency as the "eiro". One prerequisite for the introduction of the euro, however, is that the currency must be referred to as the "euro" in all legal documentation, for example.
€2 coin features a Latvian folk maiden. This image was originally used on the silver 5 lats coin in 1929. The edge of the coin bears the inscription DIEVS * SVĒTĪ * LATVIJU (GOD BLESS LATVIA). Greater Coat of arms of Latvia on the 10, 20 and 50-cent coins, and the lesser Coat of arms of Latvia on the 1, 2 and 5-cent coins. The designer is Guntars Sietiņš.
