July 12 (SeeNews) - The Council of the EU said it adopted on Tuesday the final three legal acts that are required to enable Croatia to introduce the euro on January 1, 2023.
“This completes the process in the Council which will enable Croatia to become a member of the euro area and to benefit from using the EU’s common currency, the euro, as of next year,” the Council said in a press release.
One of the three legal acts sets the conversion rate between the euro and the Croatian kuna at 7.53450 kuna per 1 euro. This corresponds to the current central rate of the kuna in the exchange rate mechanism (ERM II).
Croatia, together with Bulgaria, joined the ERM II, seen as the training grounds for the euro adoption, and the EU's banking union, on July 10, 2020.
"I would like to congratulate my counterpart, Zdravko Maric, and the whole of Croatia for becoming the 20th country to join the euro area. Adopting the euro is not a race, but a responsible political decision. Croatia has successfully completed all the required economic criteria and they will pay in euro as of January1, 2023," Zbynek Stanjura, minister of finance of Czechia, said in the press release.
The Adriatic country of 3.85 million people joined the European Union in July 2013.