ZAGREB, 2 June 2022 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday Croatia was one of the EU member states outside the euro area which had met all the criteria for membership in the European economic and monetary union, whereby one of the government's strategic goals has been achieved.

Speaking after a meeting with the European Commission Executive Vice President for An Economy that Works for People, Valdis Dombrovskis, Plenković said Croatian officials had the opportunity to hear the Commission's assessments on its convergence report on Croatia and the other countries still outside the euro area.

"Such a positive report on Croatia is very good, given that by all criteria, which are equal for all, we are the only country meeting the criteria for membership in the European economic and monetary union," he told the press.

The Commission presented the report yesterday, confirming that Croatia is one of the observed member states meeting all nominal convergence criteria and that its legislation is fully aligned with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union as well as the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank (ECB).

The Commission, therefore, concluded that Croatia is prepared to introduce the euro on 1 January 2023, becoming the 20th euro area member state.

"It's particularly important that Croatia meets the price stability criterion. You have seen that over 12 months up to April this year the average inflation was 4.7%, and the reference value was 4.9%, so we were within that criterion," Plenković said.

It is also very important that Croatia has received confirmation from the ECB that it is below the Maastricht budget deficit criterion of 3% of GDP.

"Croatia no longer has macroeconomic imbalances and in this whole set of our efforts, from responsibly managing public finance, coming out of the excessive deficit procedure, raising the credit rating to investment level, the fact that we carried out all the reforms that were on the table after entering the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and the banking union on time, in line with the action plan, shows that by implementing the euro introduction strategy, Croatia has achieved one of the fundamental political goals during the terms of our two governments," Plenković said.

The other goal is entering the Schengen Area, he added.

For more, check out our politics section.