Croatia Adopts Euro and Enters European Free Movement Area – News

Croatia adopted the euro as its currency this Sunday (1st) and joined the free-flowing Schengen area – two big steps for this tiny Balkan country to enter. European union About a decade ago.

At midnight on Sunday (Saturday 31, 20:00 in Brasilia), Croatians said goodbye not only to 2022, but also to their own currency, the kuna.

With this, Croatia became the 20th member of the Eurozone out of 27 countries in the European Union. It also became the 27th state to join the Schengen Area, a vast region of more than 400 million Europeans who can travel freely without restrictions at internal borders.

The area is mainly made up of the countries of the European Union, with the exception of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen arrived in the Balkan country this Sunday to celebrate both events. “There is no better place in Europe [europeu] Be truer than Croatia,” Van der Leyen tweeted.

The Commission Chairman, first, met Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Blenkovic and Slovenian President Birk Musar at the border post between the two countries. From there, he went to Zagreb, the Croatian capital.

“This is a day that will go down in the history books,” van der Leyen said at the border crossing, while Blenkovic said it was a “historic moment.”

Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 after a war in which about 20,000 people died. Since July 2013, it has been part of the European Union.

Entry into the Eurozone and the Schengen area represent “two strategic objectives to achieve greater integration in the EU”, the Croatian Prime Minister highlighted last Wednesday (27).

Faced with an ongoing energy crisis accentuated by the war in Ukraine, the Croatian economy suffered with inflation of 13.5% in November, higher than the euro zone average of 10%.

In a video message released on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped the euro would bring “stability and monetary prosperity” to the country.