Analyst Piotr Maciej Kaczynski: Lithuania has freedom of maneuver when to join euro

"There is the freedom of maneuver when to join because the treaty doesn't say when to join. It says there is a legal obligation for Lithuania to join," the analyst from the Centre for European Policy Studies told BNS on Friday.

"The conditions for entrance to the euro zone have changed. The treaty talks about the Maastricht criteria, the Stability and Growth Pact. But there are serious amendments to the Stability and Growth Pact ... and that changes governance enormously. It has impact on how your national budgets are adopted, for example. There is truth to say that rules have changed, therefore one has to consider again," he said on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels.

Poland has been particularly vocal in recent years about revising commitments to join the euro zone. The country says it will introduce the euro only after it decides itself and after the euro zone crisis is solved. Before the accession to the European Union, Lithuania and Poland made the commitment to join the euro zone but have so far failed to match the Maastricht criteria.

Kaczynski says there's no point for Lithuania to follow Poland as the Lithuanian litas, differently from the Polish zloty, is pegged to the euro.

"Your currency is pegged to the euro and that makes no sense to stay outside the euro. You bear all the costs of being pegged and you don't get the benefit of being in the euro," the expert said.

The Lithuanian government says the country might join the euro zone in 2014. On the one hand, that might lead to a decrease in borrowing costs. On the other hand, Lithuania would have to contribute to the fund meant to support crisis-hit euro zone members. Some Lithuanian experts say that taking into account all aspects, the existing situation is neither good nor bad for Lithuania.