EU finance ministers gave Slovakia the final green light today to adopt the euro on January 1, 2009, leaving the ex-communist country less than six months to prepare for the changeover.
The ministers also set the definitive conversion rate with €1 worth 30.1260 koruna.
The ministers' rubberstamp of approval at a meeting in Brussels was the last EU obstacle Slovakia faced on the long path to becoming the sixteenth member of the euro zone.
The European Commission and the European Central Bank ruled in May that Slovakia met the tough economic criteria for joining, lifting the biggest obstacle to Bratislava's euro ambitions.
Slovaks are divided, however, about being the first central European nation to join the euro zone, with many of the nearly 5.5-million strong population fearful the currency switch could drive up inflation.
