The country had expressed its desire to adopt the single currency as soon as it joined the EU in 2013.
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Soon a twentieth member of the euro zone? The European Commission estimated on Wednesday June 1 that Croatia met the conditions to adopt the single currency on January 1, 2023. The formal decision will be taken at the beginning of July by the European Union’s finance ministers, but the door is now wide opened. The country had expressed its desire to adopt the single currency as soon as it joined the EU in 2013.
No opposition is expected, while the former Yugoslav Republic of four million inhabitants meets all the technical criteria. The European Central Bank (ECB) also issued a positive opinion on Wednesday. Croatia is now “ready to join the Eurozone on January 1. This will strengthen Croatia’s economy, benefiting its citizens, businesses and society as a whole”said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said he was confident about his country’s integration into the euro club at the start of 2023. On the same date, “we also want to enter the Schengen area” free movement in Europe, he told a press conference in Berlin.
The Mediterranean country has an important tourism sector. The standard of living there is equivalent to that of Poland and the Baltic States, with wealth creation (GDP per capita) slightly exceeding half the EU average. The unemployment rate reached 6.1% in April.