Croatia introduces the euro and joins the Schengen area

On Saturday night Croatia adopted the single European currency and scrapped border procedures for European passport holders, two main stops for this country since it joined the European Union nearly a decade ago.

At midnight from Saturday to Sunday, the Balkan country said goodbye to its currency, the kuna, and became the twentieth country in the euro zone.

The country has also joined the Schengen area, which allows more than 400 million people to travel between its countries without a visa, the number of which has increased to 27 countries by entering Croatia.

Experts say the introduction of the euro will help support Croatia’s economy at a time when inflation is rising around the world due to the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has led to spikes in food and fuel prices.

Officials defended the decision to join the eurozone and Schengen, and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday that the two decisions were “strategic objectives related to deeper accession to the European Union”.