Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen area

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

At midnight Saturday-Sunday, the Balkan country said goodbye to its currency, the kuna, to become the twentieth country in the eurozone.

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

Experts say that the adoption of the euro will contribute to supporting the economy of Croatia at a time when inflation is rising around the world due to the impact of Russia's war on Ukraine, which caused an increase 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 goals in the context of deeper accession to the European Union".

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