Czech Republic aims to adopt euro by 2012

The Czech Republic will aim to switch to the euro currency by 2012, the finance minister said Tuesday.

Government had postponed the date from 2010 to give it more time to meet EU criteria for adopting the European common currency, including maintaining a budget deficit below 3% of gross domestic product.

“The euro is a political project,” Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said on the margins of a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels, adding that he would push for the 2012 date to be firmly set in a strategy paper outlining the Czech Republic’s preparations for adopting the euro.