The ex-Yugoslav republic will thus abandon its national motto, the Kuna, and become the twentieth member country of the euro zone, seven years after the entry of Lithuania.
Le Monde with AFP
The Council of the European Union, which represents the member countries, adopted Tuesday July 12 the last legal acts validating the transition from Croatia to the Euro at 1 er January 2023. L ‘ex-Yugoslav republic will thus become the twentieth member country of the euro zone, seven years after the entry of Lithuania. Croatia will abandon its national currency, the Kuna, which will exchange at the rate of 7.5345 kunas for 1 euro, announced the council in a Communiqué .
“I want to congratulate my counterpart, Zdravko Maric, and all Croatia, said the Minister of Czech finance, Zbynek Stanjura, whose country provides the rotating presidency of the Council. Croatia has successfully fulfilled all the criteria economic required and will pay in euros from January 1, 2023. “
The event was marked by a signature ceremony before the press in Brussels, in the presence of the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, the Vice-President of the Valdis Dombrovskis Commission and the Commissioner The Paolo Gentiloni economy.
Three hundred and forty-five million users
The commission had given the green light to this membership on 1 er June, believing that Croatia met all the conditions. The end of the Croatia membership procedure with the single European currency comes at a time when the motto, which has weakened in recent months in the context of the war in Ukraine, has reached parity with the dollar, for the first time since December 2002.
The Euro also celebrated its twenty years of existence at the start of the year as a fiduciary currency. At 1 er January 2002, millions of Europeans in twelve countries had abandoned their reads, francs, deutsche Marks and Drachmes for pieces and tickets in euros.
They have been joined since seven other countries: Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia (2009), Estonia (2011), Latvia (2014) and finally Lithuania in 2015. The euro zone already brings together 345 million inhabitants, pending Croatia.
The single currency is a symbol of European unity and sovereignty. All EU countries have committed theory to join in it as soon as they meet the conditions, but no calendar is set. The only exception: Denmark negotiated an exemption after a referendum in 2000 by which the Danes rejected the Euro.