Croatia will pay with the euro from next year | Now

Croatia and the European Commission approved the Balkan country’s entry into the eurozone on Tuesday. That means scientist Nikola Tesla’s portrait will be on the country’s euro-adoption coins on January 1 next year.

Croatia has been a member of the European Union since 2013 and wants to replace its own currency, the kuna, with the euro. EU countries wishing to adopt the euro must meet a number of conditions. These include rules for fixed prices and interest rates, the national budget deficit and the level of a country’s debt.

The country fulfills all the requirements and can therefore introduce the currency from January 1, 2023. It was already approved a month ago, but the official exchange rate was also decided by the European Commission on Tuesday. 1 euro is good for 7.53 kuna.

Countries that adopt the euro are allowed to put some national symbols on euro coins. Croatian 10, 20 and 50 cent coins feature the image of physicist Nikola Tesla, after whom Elon Musk named his car company. The scientist was born in Smiljan, Croatia.

That decision has already sparked an angry reaction from neighboring Serbia. The country thinks it is Serbian because Tesla’s parents are Serbian. Smiljan was part of Austria-Hungary at the time of Tesla’s birth in 1856, and later settled in Croatia. Tesla immigrated to the United States in 1884, where he became an American citizen.