EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels Tuesday adopted a decision allowing Latvia to adopt the euro as its currency as of 1 January 2014. This decision will extend the euro area to 18 member states, and gives Latvia almost six months to prepare for the changeover, said the ministers in a statement. They also set the conversion rate at 0.702804 Latvian lats to one euro. Seventeen of the 28 member states of the EU currently have the euro as their currency.