The European Central Bank has published its June 2026 Convergence Report on the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden, concluding that none of the five currently satisfies the full set of conditions needed to adopt the euro. The assessment shows uneven progress on the economic convergence criteria and finds that all five countries still have legal incompatibilities with the Treaties and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks, while none participates in Exchange Rate Mechanism II. On the economic criteria, inflation remained above the 2.7% reference value in Hungary, Poland and Romania, with Romania far above the threshold at 8.4% in May 2026. Hungary, Poland and Romania are also under excessive deficit procedures, and their deficits remained well above the 3% of gross domestic product reference value in 2025. Long-term interest rates exceeded the 5.1% reference value in the same three countries. By contrast, the Czech Republic and Sweden were below the inflation, fiscal and long-term rate thresholds, but both remained outside ERM II and, like the other countries reviewed, still showed legal shortcomings on central bank independence, monetary financing rules and integration into the Eurosystem. The ECB said convergence since its 2024 report had been held back by external shocks including Russia's war against Ukraine, global trade tensions and the war in the Middle East. The ECB said its report and the European Commission's report are being submitted to the EU Council in parallel as part of the regular two-year review cycle under Article 140 of the Treaty.

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