As of today, Croatia is a member of the Euro countries and joins the Schengen Area. This means that travelers from one of the other 26 so-called Schengen countries no longer have to go through passport control and payments can be made in euros.

Anyone traveling to Croatia from a Euro country by car or train will not be required to have a passport. This still applies to the plane. Passport control will be lifted at the end of March. The same is true in reverse for the nearly 4 million Croats.

Ministers from Croatia and Slovenia jointly symbolically opened the barrier at the border between the two countries tonight:

The new currency offers economic benefits to residents. This makes trading with countries that also use the euro as a method of payment easier. “We have opened our doors to Europe. This goes beyond the abolition of border controls, it is the final affirmation of our European identity,” said Interior Minister Davor Bozinović.

Croatia has been a member of the European Union for nearly ten years, but the euro has not yet been introduced. The country first had to meet stringent economic requirements regarding inflation and the national debt, among other things. The European Commission ruled last year that the country complied, so permission to exchange kuna for euros was granted. The original national currency can still be used all year round.

Croatia is the twentieth country in which it is possible to pay in euros. Ultimately, the idea is that all EU countries will adopt the euro. Denmark made an exception.

The Croatian 2 euro currency shows the country map. The 1 euro coin features SMART, the national symbol. The 50, 20 and 10 cent coins resemble Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, who was born in Croatia.