Croatia has received the green light from the other EU countries to introduce the common currency, the euro. “Today we made the decisions that will enable Croatia to switch to the euro from January 1, 2023,” French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday as current Chair of the EU Finance Ministers Council. This is excellent news.
The EU Commission had previously come to the conclusion that Croatia was ready to replace its national currency, the kuna, with the euro. The analysis published by the Brussels authorities on June 1st was the basis for the decisions of the Council of Finance Ministers in Luxembourg.
Croatia, which last had around 4.1 million inhabitants, has been trying for years to meet the criteria for admission to the Euro Club. On January 1, 2015, Lithuania was the last country to be accepted as the 19th member of the group of countries with the common currency.
According to the EU treaties, all member states except Denmark are obliged to join the common currency as soon as they meet the requirements. However, several countries are not pursuing this vigorously – they include Sweden, Poland and Hungary, for example.
In Croatia, tourism in particular is looking forward to the introduction of the euro with great expectations. The country with the long Adriatic coast, the many picturesque bays and islands, lives heavily on tourism. At the same time, many people fear that the cost of living could rise sharply as a result of the conversion to the European common currency.
