jan47ete

Croatia is now on the euro!

dfourh

They're also in the Schengen immigration/passport zone now too. I used to go there to count against my day in the 90-day limit Schengen zone, but now they are no longer a days-away-from-Schengen getaway (maybe Romania and Bulgaria will benefit?).

rialtogrl

And Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania also will benefit.

Who will not benefit - the good people of Croatia who will see the price of everything go up even more than it already has.

hetismij2

No one forced them into the EU. They knew the rules and they benefit from EU funding to a great extent.

rialtogrl

For sure on the funding. But rules for using the euro, hmmm, why is it that Croatia has to but so many other EU countries do not? The government wanted it, many of the citizens, not so much.

There is talk that some change being given is Bosnia 2 km for a 2 euro coin, they look similar. So people going to Croatia should check their change carefully, at least for awhile.

lavandula

All countries had to meet the criteria when it was first introduced. I remember travelling through Germany and seeing anti-euro graffiti because conditions for the have-nots was suddenly a lot harder. That must have been in the mid-90s some time, perhaps 1997 (the euro was introduced on paper in 1999 in the sense that pay packets had both the normal currency and euro values printed, but it was not physically distributed until 2002). So even wealthy countries had their push-back.

Lavandula

balthy

Some countries decided to adopt the euro, others did not. Some do not meet criteria to adopt the euro. Denmark negotiated an opt out even though it met the criteria & Sweden did not opt in based on a 2003 referendum. Croatia adopted the Euro apparently to protect its economy. It’s all out there in the public domain if you care to google the info.

hetismij2

Croatia joined after the time for euro opt outs. There were referendums in some then EU countries regarding it before it was introduced. The Netherlands had one which voted against the euro, but it was non binding so we got it anyway, and at a terrible exchange rate.
Denmark had a binding referendum and negotiated an opt out. The rule now is that once criteria are met countries must join the euro. Schengen is optional, euro is not.
Other EU states which joined after the Maastricht treaty like Sweden, Poland and Czechia are legally required to introduce it at some point but as yet have no plans to do so. They get around it by not meeting the criteria needed to join.

Bulgaria is likely to join on Jan 1st 2024. Kosovo and Montenegro are not EU but use the euro.

I don't see why the price of anything should rise in Croatia if they have the conversion rate set correctly. It will make doing business within the EU a lot easier for them, and probably attract more tourists since they will no longer have to deal with currency issues.

As I said no one forced them to join the EU and they knew the rules before doing so.