The document, which has been made public, sets out key principles, elements, and timeframe of the euro adoption process, as well as measures to ensure consumer protection, a smooth changeover from the litas to the euro, and public awareness.
According to the document, the Bank of Lithuania will work out an updated draft Law on the Adoption of the Euro, but the Seimas will pass it only after the EU Council adopts a decision on the abrogation of the derogation and the introduction of the euro in Lithuania. The Council is expected to announce its decision in June 2014.
Among other things, the draft plan provides for informing the public about euro banknotes and coins and their security features.
Costs incurred by companies and other economic entities in relation to the changeover will not be reimbursed.
Prime Minister optimistic
Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius says that Lithuania has many chances to switch to the euro in 2015.
"There is perhaps a 95-percent chance of having the euro in 2015. But it goes without saying that we cannot relax and forget the Maastricht criteria. This is out of the question," he told Žinių Radijas on Thursday.
Butkevičius ruled out taking temporary administrative measures to ensure that the country complies with the requirements by early July 2014.
"We are looking at long-term economic and financial sustainability," he said.
Estonia adopted the single currency in 2011 and Latvia expects to follow suit in 2014.
Lithuania's bid to join the euro in 2007 was rejected because its inflation exceeded the Maastricht limit.
Smooth changeover
Meanwhile Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius says that the changeover from the litas to the euro should be smooth.
"Perhaps it's important for people to know that we'll do our best to ensure that the changeover from the litas to the euro is smooth, that it doesn't take much time and that it's technically simple, and that people don't need to go anywhere far away and that it seems to them that all this is happening by itself. But, of course, this will require a lot of work," he told BNS.
Šadžius expects that the Cabinet will in the near future approve the draft National Changeover Plan that has been worked out by the Finance Ministry and the central bank.
"The government will most probably approve the preliminary plan in its current form, because it has been already discussed at the working group headed by the finance minister," he told BNS.
The plan provides for a dual circulation period, when payments in litas banknotes and coins will also be allowed, as well as a period for the mandatory dual display of prices and a period during which commercial banks will exchange litas into euros free of charge.
