The CEE countries have already made significant progress with respect to their catching-up with the euro area. However, some of the countries have been severely hit by the financial crisis. This clearly has an impact on the state of the convergence process of the CEE countries and has potentially moved euro adoption further into the future.
The timetables of the euro adoption have to be carefully assessed, given  BIS Review 144/2009  5  particularly the large uncertainties that are associated with the current economic and financial situation. One thing, however, needs to be very clear. The financial crisis has not changed our policy for adopting the euro.