Croatian National Bank (HNB) has set a strategy for joining the eurozone in 2022 the earliest, daily newspaper Vecernj list reports on Monday.

The strategy will be officially published at the end of October and will serve as a fundamental document for a public discussion about the introduction of the euro. Vecernj list reported that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic would personally open the discussion. He has already acknowledged joining the Eurozone and the strategy is a common work of the HNB and the government.

HNB Governor Boris Vujcic thinks that Croatia should join the exchange rate mechanism (ERM-2) that would prepare the country for adopting the euro. "It would be an enticement to make required changes", Vujcic told Vecernji list.

Vujcic strongly advocates for the euro, because it would solve the current exchange rate issues. According to him, approximately 500 billion kunas (78.2 billion U.S. dollars) is tied to euro, so only one percent of depreciation would increase the debt by five billion kunas (781.2 million U.S. dollars).

Croatia is one of the nine EU countries that have not adopted the euro. After Slovakia who introduced the euro in 2009, only Bulgaria has officially applied for ERM-2, but it was rejected.

A country has to meet a range of criteria to enter the eurozone. The decision to start negotiations and enter the ERM mechanism would mean that the government is ready to push reforms that would reduce the public debt and increase employment.