Croatia determined to convert to euro
During his visit to Berlin Croatia's Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković announced that his country will convert to the euro in four years' time. In view of Croatia's huge debts and poor economic statistics commentators doubt his plan will work out.
Why board a sinking ship?
Why Croatia still wants to join the Eurozone despite all the crises the EU is facing is a mystery for the centre-left daily Novi list:
“Germany uses the euro to dominate the EU economically and politically. Greece, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other countries are finding this increasingly hard to bear and are being swamped by radical movements that question the euro and the European institutions. A common EU monetary policy seems as much of an impossibility as a common refugee policy. The member states have different needs, and the Commission's decisions which apply for all help some while they harm others. … The EU is like a sinking ship, and the Commission is like the orchestra on the Titanic, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has also warned. It is therefore completely incomprehensible that Orešković is urging us to board it at the last minute.”
We can do it
Despite the current economic crisis the euro is not a mission impossible for Croatia, the liberal daily Jutarnji list writes in pep-talk mode:
“It's really not all that complicated. First we must prove our ability to cut the public debt, which we have to do anyway. Then the European Central Bank will champion our cause. Its good will is a guarantee for continuous and stable economic growth. … Naturally it would be naïve to assume we can quickly get together the many billions of euros we need to pare down the mountain of debt keeping us out of the Eurozone. But who says the other countries that joined fulfilled the criteria one hundred percent? With political manoeuvring, a little good luck and the support of the great and powerful, like Angela Merkel, anything is possible.”
The euro still just a dream
Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković may be serious about introducing the euro in five years but his plan has nothing to do with reality, the conservative daily Večernji list comments:
“If you include the statistics in the political calculations, the Eurozone is receding into the distance. There are twelve billion euros between us and the euro. That's the amount by which we must reduce our debts to have any chance at all of even beginning the accession process. To fulfil the Maastricht criteria we would have to stop paying pensions for two years and pay no salaries in the public sector for six months. Or we can take a more optimistic view and approach the whole thing from the revenues perspective: all we need is for our economy to grow by 30 percent per year to reduce this huge mountain of debt.”