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Croatia on Sunday switched to the euro and entered Europe\u2019s passport-free zone \u2014 two major milestones for the country after joining the European Union nearly a decade ago.
\nAt midnight, the Balkan nation bid farewell to its kuna currency and became the 20th member of the eurozone.
\nIt is now the 27th nation in the passport-free Schengen zone, the world\u2019s largest, which enables more than 400 million people to move freely around its members.
\n\u201cIt is the season of new beginnings. And there is no place in Europe where this is more true than here in Croatia,\u201d tweeted EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, as she arrived in Croatia to mark the occasion.
\nShe met Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar at a border crossing with EU member Slovenia, and was then to head on to Zagreb.
\nExperts say the adoption of the euro will help shield Croatia\u2019s economy at a time when inflation is soaring worldwide after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine sent food and fuel prices through the roof.
\nBut feelings among Croatians are mixed.
\nWhile they welcome the end of border controls, some fear the euro switch will lead to an increase in the cost of living as businesses round up prices when they convert them.
\n\u201cIt will be difficult. Prices that are already high will become even higher,\u201d said Ivana Toncic, a teacher from Zagreb.
\nBut tourist agency employee Marko Pavic said Croatia was joining \u201can elite club.\u201d
\n\u201cThe euro was already a value measure \u2014 psychologically it\u2019s nothing new \u2014 while entry into Schengen is fantastic news for tourism,\u201d he said
\nUse of the euro is already widespread in Croatia.
\nCroatians have long valued their most precious assets such as cars and apartments in euros, displaying a lack of confidence in the local currency.
\nAbout 80 percent of bank deposits are denominated in euros and Zagreb\u2019s main trading partners are in the eurozone.
\nOfficials have defended the decision to join the eurozone and Schengen, saying that the country thus completes its full EU integration.
\nCroatia, a former Yugoslav republic of 3.9 million people that fought a war of independence in the 1990s, joined the European Union in 2013.
\nExperts say the adoption of the euro will lower borrowing conditions amid economic hardship.
\nCroatia\u2019s inflation rate reached 13.5 percent in November compared to 10 percent in the eurozone.
\nAnalysts stress that eastern EU members with currencies outside of the eurozone, such as Poland or Hungary, have been even more vulnerable to surging inflation.
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday hailed Croatia\u2019s switch to the euro, describing it as a \u201cstable and solid\u201d currency that had contributed to Europe\u2019s resilience in facing the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
\nEarlier on Sunday, Croatian National Bank governor Boris Vujcic symbolically withdrew euros from a cash machine in downtown Zagreb.
\nIn recent days, customers have queued at banks and ATMs to withdraw cash, fearing payment problems during the immediate aftermath of the transition period.
\nAs the clock struck midnight, a series of events were held along Croatia\u2019s borders with its EU neighbors to symbolize barrier-free travel.
\nForeign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman took part in a ceremony at a crossing point with EU member Hungary, where the New Year countdown ended with a traffic barrier being raised.
\nA similar ceremony was held at the Slovenia border, with Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic and Slovenian Public Administration Minister Sanja Ajanovic Hovnik.
\n\u201cTonight we are celebrating New Year, new Europe with Croatia in Schengen,\u201d Bozinovic told reporters.
\nCroatia\u2019s entry into the Schengen borderless area is expected to provide a boost to the Adriatic nation\u2019s key tourism industry, which accounts for 20 percent of its GDP.
\nPreviously long queues at the 73 land border crossings with Slovenia and Hungary will become history.
\nBut border checks will only end on March 26 at airports due to technical issues.
\nAnd Croatia will still apply strict border checks on its eastern frontier with non-EU neighbors Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia.
\nThe fight against illegal migration remains the key challenge in guarding the European Union\u2019s longest external land border at 1,350 kilometers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Croatia on Sunday switched to the euro and entered Europe\u2019s passport-free zone \u2014 two major milestones for the country after joining the European Union nearly a decade ago. At midnight, the Balkan nation bid farewell to its kuna currency and became the 20th member of the eurozone. It is now the 27th nation in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184007"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184009,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184007\/revisions\/184009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}