Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen area

The country said goodbye to its currency, the kuna, to become the twentieth member of the euro zone.

Croatia has adopted the euro and joined the Schengen area of ​​free movement, two major steps for this small Balkan country which joined the European Union nearly a decade ago.

At midnight (23:00 GMT) on Saturday, Croatia said goodbye to its currency, the kuna, to become the twentieth member of the euro zone. At the same time, it becomes the 27th state to have joined the Schengen area, a vast area within which more than 400 million people can travel freely, without internal border controls.

Local newspapers hailed the two events on Saturday, with the daily Vecernji List calling them a “crowning achievement of EU membership” for Croatia, where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected for the occasion on Sunday. .

This country, which has been in the European Union since July 2013, declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and the conflict that followed (1991-1995) left some 20,000 dead.

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