“We should just discuss at the political level what we should do next instead of making some declarations. I don’t think that this issue could be solved by making statements that we need a referendum,” he said in an interview to Žinių Radijas on Wednesday.
He noted that Lithuania's citizens had already expressed their opinion on euro entry at a referendum once.
“We shouldn’t forget that we joined the European Union (EU) through a referendum and it was written clearly in the [accession] treaty that we would have to adopt the euro. So how is it now – do we comply with that treaty or not? It’s possible to say that other members of the Community do not adopt the euro but it’s necessary to take a look at the accession treaties of those countries first,” Gedvilas said.
The Order and Justice party, a ruling coalition partner, has come up with an idea to hold a mandatory referendum on Lithuania’s euro zone entry. The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, another coalition partner, believes that Lithuania could be the last or the penultimate member of the EU to join the single currency bloc. The Social Democratic party, a yet another coalition partner, does not support the referendum’s idea.
The government targets to join the euro zone in 2015.
