Upon EU accession, the Slovak Republic undertook to gradually implement legislative and economic measures leading to Economic and Monetary Union, as well as the introduction of the common currency – the euro. After the country had met the four convergence Maastricht criteria, on 8 July 2008 the EU Council took a definitive decision about the introduction of the common euro currency in the Slovak Republic effective from 1 January 2009. Thus the Slovak Republic became the sixteenth member state of the Eurozone – a geographic area comprising countries that have adopted the euro as their common currency – and joined countries...