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| The Eurozone, European Union, and other countries using the euro. Map by Evan Centanni, from blank map by Ssolbergj. License: CC BY-SA |
Croatia and Bulgaria preparing to adopt the euro
The southeastern European countries of Bulgaria and Croatia have been approved by the European Union's central bank to take the next step towards joining the Eurozone - the organization of countries that officially use the euro as their shared currency. As new participants in the "European Exchange Rate Mechanism II" (ERM II or ERM-2), Croatia and Bulgaria are on track to adopt the euro after a 2-3 year waiting period - likely on January 1, 2024.Through the ERM II program, the European Central Bank helps stabilize the exchange rates between the participant countries' currencies and the euro while they bring the rest of their banking system into line with the Eurozone's. Bulgaria and Croatia's currencies, the Bulgarian lev and the Croatian kuna, will continue to be used until the countries join the Eurozone, but will be "semi-pegged" to the euro - only allowed to vary 15% above or below a set exchange rate.
For Croatia, which became the newest member of the EU in 2013, this is a like a jump to the front of the line. But Bulgaria became an EU member back in 2007, and has had its plans to adopt the euro repeatedly delayed until now. The last countries to join the Eurozone were Lithuania in 2015 and Latvia in 2014.
For more on which countries do and don't use the euro, check out our Eurozone explainer article.
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| The full European Union (EU) and prospective members |
Other Changes to the Map
For those interested in the details of PolGeoNow's Eurozone map, there are a few other revisions we've made since the previous edition in 2016:- The UK, which was never part of the Eurozone, has now left the European Union (EU) altogether, so it's no longer colored as a "Non-euro EU country".
- The Czech Republic, a non-euro EU country, has changed its official short name to "Czechia".
- We've added the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia to the map. These two UK-controlled areas use the euro under the supervision of Cyprus, but aren't considered part of the EU. This has always been the case - it just wasn't shown on the map before.
- We've added a note about parts of the Eurozone located outside the area shown on the map. For more on which distant territories of EU member countries do or don't use the euro, check out the latest version of our Eurozone explainer article.
Learn More: Which countries use the euro, and which European countries don't?