Eurozone

As of today, Croatia has become the 20th member of the Eurozone and the 27th member of the Schengen area. More than 70 border points with Slovenia and Hungary and 12 - along the sea border are being removed. On this occasion, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected in Zagreb.

The Association of Romania's Privately Managed Pensions (APAPR) has recently asked for the Eurobonds issued by Romania to be included in the European Central Bank's (ECB) procurement programme for euro area countries.

Eurozone finance ministers welcomed Croatia's application to join the currency union, BNT reported.

Yesterday Zagreb filed its official application for entry into the European Monetary Mechanism, known as the "eurozone waiting room". 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out a possible alleviation of Italy's credit burden and, in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, she explained that the principle of solidarity between Eurozone members should not transform the currency union into a debt-sharing instrument, Reuters , quoted by Focus.

EU Finance Ministers and officials arrived at the EuroGroup meeting in Tallinn, Estonia.

Youth unemployment in Greece might have fallen by over 10 percentage points between 2013-2016, but remains the highest among Eurozone member-states, according to Eurostat.

Steffen Seibert, spokesman of the German Ministry of Finance, stated that a productive solution on the Greek negotiation is possible.

As he said, the negotiations this Friday is a good opportunity for all sides to find a constructive way to move ahead and send an optimistic message.

Executive Director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Klaus Regling stresses there is no reason for concern over the Greek debt in an opinion article published in the Financial Times. Mr.

Eurozone member Greek Cyprus is well out of recession, having notched up a third consecutive quarter of growth, and is looking for GDP to expand at least 1.5 percent this year, officials have said.

Mr President, (Jeroen Dijsselbloem)

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great honour for me to join this Eurogroup meeting as finance minister in the newly elected Greek government.