All the major political parties agree on the desirability of introducing the common currency. However, at the current juncture, Hungary does not meet any of the Maastricht criteria. Government and Central Bank officials, including myself, repeatedly expressed that the earliest date to start talking about a roadmap to eurozone may be somewhere in 2009.
Given Hungary's not too convincing track record regarding the fiscal balance and inflation, an ERM II entry is only reasonable when the prospective meeting of the Maastricht criteria is safely on track. Hungary's Convergence Programme envisages meeting the fiscal deficit criterion by 2009, but chances are that this could take place as early as this year (albeit only by a narrow margin).