Sweden decided last week to hold a referendum on joining Europe's single currency on September 14, 2003, boosting the crown currency as markets raise bets on the country becoming the 13th member of the euro zone.
The decision, just two months after general elections which kept pro-euro Social Democratic Prime Minister Goran Persson in office, sets the scene for months of intensive campaigning.
Divisions on whether to adopt the euro run deep across party lines in Sweden, which boasts low unemployment and a budget surplus while the euro area struggles to keep down fiscal deficits and has a jobless rate twice the size of Sweden's.
Recent opinion polls have shown a steep decline in support for the euro after 13 months of unchallenged domination of the "yes" side.
The party leaders will meet again on December 17 to decide on the phrasing of the question that will be put to voters, financing of the referendum and who is eligible to vote.
Setting the referendum date, the biggest political and economic watershed for Sweden since it joined the European Union in 1995, will allow the now evenly balanced "yes" and "no" camps to launch full-scale campaigns to win over voters.
"I can't see how we could back out of this now," Persson told a news conference. "It is a political risk to set a date so much in advance, but so be it."
The referendum date will now have to be written into a draft law by the government and approved, together with the phrasing of the question that will be asked, by parliament.
Like Britain and Denmark, Sweden did not join the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with other EU members in 1999, but unlike the other two, it has no formal opt-out clause, which means it has to join sooner or later.
Denmark rejected the euro by a tiny majority in a plebiscite in 2000 and has no plans for another vote any time soon. Danish Finance Minister Thor Pedersen said on Friday a referendum would not be held next year.
In Britain, the government has promised a referendum if it decides by the middle of next year that the case for membership passes five key economic tests.
"We have reached an agreement for a referendum on September 14, 2003," Bo Lundgren, leader of the biggest opposition party, the Moderates, told reporters.
Persson's Social Democrats and three centre-right opposition parties including the Moderates favour adopting the euro.
The Left and Green parties, on which the minority Social Democrats rely for parliamentary support on some issues, and another centre-right party, are all euro-sceptics and oppose the single currency.
Opinion polls in the third week of November have shown a steep decline in support for the euro with the opposition feeding on negative media reports of disregard for EU budget rules drawn up to protect the value of the euro.
A poll by Demoskop, released last Thursday, showed the "yes" and "no" camps were of equal strength at 43 per cent, but the trend was favourable for the opposition.
A Gallup survey conducted before the Demoskop poll but released on Friday, showed the support side still enjoyed 40 per cent of the votes against the "no" side's 34 per cent.
Besides tighter fiscal policy and lower unemployment Sweden has enjoyed higher economic growth and productivity than the euro area since the single currency was introduced.
A Reuters poll of eight economists showed on Friday the crown was expected to firm to 8.7 per euro before its exchange rate is locked, if the "yes" side wins. The central bank has said the rate should be between 8.2 and just above nine crowns.
It moved further towards that level by rising to 9.0338 at 1348 GMT from 9.0623 early in the day. Swedish bond yields also eased towards their euro zone equivalents as the referendum date took the crown one step closer to the potential switch.
Yields were also depressed by expectations of a rate cut signalled by the central bank's minutes from its November 14 meeting, at which the bank cut its repo rate by 25 basis points to four per cent for the first time in 14 months.