The Czech president endorsed replacing the national currency with the euro, in a speech on Monday, June 8th.
The suggestion from Petr Pavel is at odds with both his country’s eurosceptic government and wider public opinion.
Pavel told the reVize Česka conference in Prague:
If the Czech koruna was preventing our development, we should abandon our attachment to it.
He argued that eurozone membership would provide Czechia with a stronger presence in the European Union. At present 21 of the 27 EU members use the Brussels-based currency, leaving those with national currencies excluded from eurozone summit meetings.
In response, PM Andrej Babiš said: “For me, the euro represents another loss of sovereignty within the EU.”
Although the Czech Republic made a paper commitment to joining the eurozone when it joined the EU in 2004, progress has been glacial. However, the debate intensified following Bulgaria’s adoption of the currency in 2026.
