ESTONIA: The EU's Model For New Euro Members.

BLOOMBERG/ “Estonia seems pretty much a model of the fiscal discipline that the EU now wants to bring to the entire euro area,” believes economist Christian Keller because it will outperform the 16 euro nations on the EU’s fiscal criteria this year. EU President Jose Barroso said Estonia “most likely” will join the euro area soon. It would be the second-smallest euro economy after Cyprus, with gross domestic product of about $23 billion. Estonia’s austerity measures to get its debt down saw the economy contract 14.1% last year. Fitch Ratings predicts that Estonia will join the euro in January, with Lithuania following in 2014. Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Romania will switch in 2015, and the Czechs will convert in 2016. But about 4,000 Estonians have signed an online petition started last month to oppose swapping the kroon for the euro.

EURO: Economists' Poll Says Greek Crisis Will Delay Further Adoption.

REUTERS/  A Reuters poll of 44 economists speculates that the current Greek financial crisis has probably delayed euro adoption by at least a year for the biggest emerging Eastern and Central European economies like Poland and the Czech Republic.

Poland's Euro Adoption "Blown Off Course."

BLOOMBERG.COM.
Poland’s Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said his government’s goal of setting a euro-adoption date had been derailed by the economic downturn.
“To be blown off course by a storm as big as this one is no shame to anybody,” Rostowski said. Poland had planned to adopt the euro in 2012 after testing its currency stability.