engleski

ALL ACTION, NO TALK? DETERMINING THE EURO’S POLITICAL SALIENCE IN CROATIA

The participation in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) in July 2020, marked the beginning of the final phase of Croatia’s accession to the euro area. Besides its political significance, this development substantially impacts Croatia’s economic and monetary sovereignty. For instance, for at least the next two years the country will undergo strict monitoring and scrutiny in terms of real compliance with the Maastricht convergence criteria. Because of its multifaceted implications this step should have been complemented by equally important debates and discussions about Croatia’s ‘euro status’ between policymakers and the academia, prior to as well as after July 2020. Surprisingly, it seems that the ERM II participation has passed (almost) unnoticed. Against this backdrop, our study inspects the political reflections on euro adoption that took place in the Croatian parliament from January 2019 until September 2020 (included). By scrutinizing a total of 788 parliamentary debates, we present a review on the position and salience on the euro and euro-related topics across Croatian parliamentarians. Our results indicate that the euro and its adoption as topics had, and still have, very low salience among Croatian politicians, especially in the period prior to the ERM II accession when these topics were almost non-existent. Moreover, the sentiment toward the euro as a common European currency results to be merely negative across the opposition with the discussion often echoing potentially negative aspects of its potential introduction. Finally, we suggest that the surprising detachment of parliamentary representatives from euro-related topics comes in stark contrast with the government’s energetic take toward a fast-track euro accession that we have observed in 2019 and 2020, which is best illustrated by the complete lack of critical reflection of the government’s 2018 ‘Euro strategy’.

euro membership, Exchange Rate Mechanism II, parliamentary debates

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