“Let’s first say that the economic crisis is not a euro crisis. There are also economic difficulties in countries that do not have the euro – while at the same time, there are eurozone countries that don’t have any difficulties. In our accession treaty there is a part that says that we will introduce the euro as soon as possible. So it really is an obligation based on that treaty.
In the case of Lithuania, we already de facto have the euro because we have a currency board system that pegs the litas to the euro at a fixed, strong rate. And in reality, our monetary policy very much depends on the European Central Bank. We do not have monetary instruments of our own. We have only the obligations and restrictions and not the benefits that we would have if we had the euro. There are enough reasons to join the eurozone as soon as we can.”

 Interview – Deutsche Welle – March 2013.