THE ANALYSIS OF ROMANIA’S ECONOMY THROUGHOUT THE ACCESSION CRITERIA TO THE EURO AREA

member of the European Union together with Bulgaria. The next important step towards European integration will be Romania’s accession to the Monetary Union. To achieve it, Romania must join the Exchange Rate Mechanism II, and then conditioned by the fulfillment of nominal convergence criteria, it will adopt the euro. Since the final objective is not just the adoption of the single European currency but also the generation of profits, it is also necessary for a country to fulfill some criteria for real convergence. The article refers to the stage of fulfillment of the criteria for both nominal and real convergence by Romania. The paper also compares the situation in Romania with that of other EU member countries from Central and Eastern Europe. Nominal convergence criteria After the new EU candidate states become EU members, they will join for minimum 2 years the Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II), and then, after the fulfillment of the nominal convergence criteria, they will adopt the euro. Of all the nominal convergence criteria, Romania has fulfilled only those concerning the budgetary deficit and public dept. Thus, Romania differs from the majority of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, which encounter difficulties exactly in these domains, being thus obliged to make substantial adjustments. Concerning the nominal convergence, Romania made considerable progress. Romania’s economy has no problems concerning the sustainability of public finance, the share in GDP of public debt and budgetary deficit being i