Prime Minister addresses European Parliament

At a plenary session of the European Parliament is Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday, the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, congratulated Croatia on shortly adopting the euro single currency and gave a strong recommendation for Croatia to join the EU's border-free Schengen Area.

"At the start of the year our house celebrated the euro's twentieth anniversary and it is fitting, therefore, that Croatia will soon become the twentieth member of the eurozone. This marks a true defining moment for Croatia and our union. But in order to remain credible we must also be consistent. Croatia is ready for Schengen. The European Parliament has long recognized that Croatia has met all the necessary requirements to join the Schengen Area and we will continue to support that," said Metsola.

The leaders of the EU member states will gather on Thursday and Friday at a summit to support the recommendation on Croatia's entry into the euro area and to decide on the candidate status for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

The European Council welcomes Croatia's fulfillment of all the convergence criteria set out in the Treaty. It supports the Commission's proposal that Croatia adopts the euro on 1 January, 2023, and calls on the Council to swiftly adopt the relevant Commission proposals, a draft conclusion said.

This is the second-last step in the decision-making process on Croatia's accession to the euro area. The last step will be the adoption of three legislative proposals on Croatia's entry, which will take place at a meeting of the Economy and Finance Council on 12 July.

The main topic of the summit is enlargement, and giving candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, while Georgia should receive a promise of its European perspective, which roughly corresponds to the status of a potential candidate.