Croatia’s historic entry into the Eurozone is a sign of hope

From 1 January 2023, Croatia became the twentieth country member of the Eurozone. This is the conclusion of a long process, which started with an application for membership in the autumn of 2017, which should have lasted 7-8 years and which instead ended early, when on 12 July the Council of the European Union approved the entry of Zagreb and fixed the conversion rate with the Croatian kuna. As mentioned, Croatia had to go through a long path of reforms to meet the convergence criteria: price stability, public finances, exchange rate, long-term interest rates, compatibility of legislation and others relevant factors such as labor and product market integration. Croatia will also enter the Mes at the same time without any kind of problem in ratifying both the founding treaty and the reform and, probably, on this front, the latest arrival will be ahead of a founding country like Italy.