Lithuania failed to join the Eurozone right before the economic crisis of 2008-2009 in the most humorous and anecdotal way possible - as our economics lecturer commented, in the lead-up to the application process, several of the country's logal governments increased prices for public transport tickets, which raised the inflation rate juuust above the Maastricht criteria (like 0.1 percent above).
Had Lithuania managed to join the Eurozone eight years earlier, it is almost universally agreed that we would have been much better off both in the short and in the long term, especially during the following recession. In OTL, as the Lithuanian litas was tied to the Euro, the government had to borrow money at far greater interest rates than Eurozone members, as there were real fears that Lithuania will detach its currency from the Euro and turn it into a floating currency again (which is what the IMF actually requested Lithuania to do, which would have been really terrible). This meant that severe austerity measures were required, which, while they rescued Lithuania from the economic crisis, also led to long-term complications.
An Euro-bearing Lithuania, on the other hand, would probably be similar to Slovenia, although possibly with a far smoother path out of the economic recession, as its economic policy and wage controls are considerably more flexible and the level of foreign direct investment is considerably higher.
Thoughts?