Romania should have a very clear calendar for the adoption of the euro, like those that multinationals implement for large projects, with precise data and steps to be made for each stage; a calendar that should be assumed by all political parties, states Dan Pascariu, UniCredit Tiriac Bank's chairman of the board of directors.

"It's stupid for us not to assume a national euro adoption programme sooner rather than later, after the entire political scene undertook the EU integration project," says Pascariu in an interview with ZF. He considers such a programme imposes discipline and rigorousness on any government, the more so as the criteria for euro adoption is quite easy to follow publicly and if failure occurred government responsibility would be highly visible. Misu Negritoiu, general manager of ING Bank Romania, also maintains euro adoption would be the most important objective through which economic stability could be ensured.

The NBR and the government announced 2014 as a possible euro adoption target in Brussels, but the central bank warned this year that unless inflation was brought back on a solid downward trend, the target could be endangered.

Pascariu says he is concerned about the electoral period and "populist temptations". However, he declares himself upbeat about the performance of the economy. As regards RON trend, the banker says he was surprised by the recent weakness registered amid the dollar's rise against the euro. Pascariu expects fluctuations to continue within a range of 3.4-3.7 RON per euro and considers such volatility does not have negative effects in the economy.

He believes the market has grown more resilient to exchange rate fluctuations, has learnt there is no fixed rate and must expect the worse, with large companies being already accustomed to resorting to specialised instruments to cover exchange rate risks. @