The Council of the EU, which represents the member countries, adopted on Tuesday the last legal acts validating Croatia’s changeover to the euro on January 1, 2023.
The former Yugoslav Republic will thus become the twentieth member of the euro zone, seven years after the entry of Lithuania. Croatia will abandon its national currency, the Kuna, which will be exchanged at the rate of 7.5345 kuna for 1 euro, the Council announced in a press release.
Strengthen the country
Croatia had expressed its desire to adopt the single currency as soon as it joined the EU in 2013. “This will strengthen Croatia’s economy, benefiting its citizens, businesses and society as a whole”, had said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last June.
This will “also strengthen the euro”, she said. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said he was confident, and said he wanted to “also enter the Schengen area” of free movement in Europe in early 2023.