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Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic (with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, ECB President Christine Lagarde, Ireland's Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe)
Photo:
OLIVIER HOSLET v EPA
Croatia has received the green light from the heads of state and government of the other EU countries to introduce the common currency, the euro.
In Brussels, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his colleagues backed the EU Commission's proposal for the introduction of the euro in the country on the Adriatic Sea on January 1, 2023.
The EU finance ministers had previously done so.
Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic called the decision an "excellent signal for the Croatian economy".
Through membership, Croatia will be better prepared to withstand the pressure of crises in the future.
According to Plenkovic, 70 percent of tourists in the country come from euro countries.
First new member in the Eurozone since 2015
Croatia, which last had around 4.1 million inhabitants, has been trying for years to meet the criteria for admission to the Euro Club.
So far, the Croatian national currency is the Kuna.
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, for example, Sweden, Poland and Hungary.
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 depends 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.
atb/dpa