The European countries that join the EU are expected to follow the single currency, euro. For this, the member states have to satisfy a few economic criteria. However, there is no strict rule or rigid timeframe in which they have to do so or any mechanism to force them to adopt the euro.
This implies that countries can join the EU before accepting the euro as their currency. For instance, 8 of the 27 EU member states are yet to adopt the single currency.
There are four essential criteria to be satisfied before a member state absorbs the single currency. The requirements are: keeping inflation low and stable, ensuring that the public debt and the deficit are within the limits of EU rules, maintaining low-interest rates, and tying the national currency to the euro for at least two years without serious issues.
Denmark is currently the only EU nation that has chosen an opt-out from the system; it follows its own currency instead of the euro.
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