Government adopts decisions on the implementation of the Euro in 2023

At a Thursday’s cabinet session, government adopted a conclusion on the implementation of legislative activities related to the introduction of the Euro as the official currency in the Republic of Croatia, including amendments to 46 laws and 72 bylaws, which are planned to be implemented by July 15th of next year.

In order to implement the National Plan to replace the Croatian Kuna with the Euro, the conclusion determines the list of laws and bylaws that will need to be amended in order to fully adapt Croatian legislation to the introduction of the Euro as the official currency in Croatia.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Zdravko Marić reported that in recent months all these laws and bylaws have been worked on in detail and enumerated, of which there are a total of 118, 46 laws and 72 bylaws. These 118 regulations are in the first category, which includes laws and bylaws that contain significant references to the Croatian Kuna and that need to be amended before the introduction of the Euro. Given the Government's timetable for joining the Eurozone on January 1st 2023, the deadline for the amendments to be implemented is July 15th 2022.

The second group contains 939 regulations, and includes laws and bylaws that contain a smaller number of provisions related to the Croatian Kuna, and whose changes are envisaged during the next wave of regular amendments to regulations. The Finance Ministry is in charge of coordinating all activities related to the implementation of the tasks set out in the conclusion, supervising the implementation of these activities and reporting to the government on the implementation of the conclusion.

Opening today’s cabinet session, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković reminded that a session of the National Council for the Introduction of the Euro as the Official Currency in Croatia was held on Monday and was attended by Valdis Dombrovskis, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission. He added that Irish Finance Minister and President of the Eurogroup Paschal Donohoe also paid a working visit to Croatia, and noted that both men had provided strong support to Croatia on its path to adopting the Euro.

Apart from the European Commission and the Eurogroup, Plenković emphasized that in the final months before the introduction of the euro, Croatia also has the support of the European Central Bank and all other relevant players: "We have the support of the European Commission in these final months prior to adopting the Euro, which is in line with our strategy, which we adopted in 2018, and which follows our obligations we assumed when joining the European Union that were signed in 2011, confirmed at a referendum in 2012, ratified by an effective consensus in Croatian Parliament. Obviously, along with joining the Schengen Border Area, this is one of two points of deeper integration with the EU that we are working on and that we want to achieve during this government's mandate."

Source: HRT