ZAGREB (Reuters) – Withdrawing money to pay for wine at Zagreb’s Christmas Market is not any simple activity because the nation readies to introduce the euro on Jan. 1, together with making ready ATM money machines by leaving solely a 3rd of them capable of dispense the nationwide kuna foreign money.

“There may be all the time someplace a reduction for money funds and once we don’t have money we have to go to an ATM to get it, and we go there like simply now and it’s out of order,” Denis Trgovac informed Reuters.

In mid-December, Croatian banks started to part out 2,700 of the nation’s 4,000 ATM machines for withdrawing kunas, to organize them for allotting euros subsequent month. The Croatian Banking Affiliation has put up an interactive map of all of the ATM machines to assist individuals discover the closest one operational.

When it comes to what foreign money individuals can use, each the kuna and euro shall be in circulation from Jan. 1 till Jan. 14 at midnight. After that solely euros shall be used.

For Zagreb resident Patrik Macek, the issue goes deeper than money withdrawals.

“The true drawback is that by getting into the eurozone, Croatia loses the final attribute of its sovereignty. We’ve got no chance to affect the world,” he informed Reuters.

“The kuna is affirmation of Croatia’s sovereignty.”

Such points are essential to some Croatians, given it’s a comparatively new nation.

Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 however its Serb minority, backed by Belgrade, seized a 3rd of the nation by drive. Croatia retook the occupied territory in a 1995 offensive.

Croatia has been a member of the European Union since 2013 and it is going to be the second former Yugoslav republic, after Slovenia, to introduce the euro. Finance Minister Marko Primorac spelled out the benefits to lawmakers final month, saying:

“The introduction of the euro will strengthen our economic system, it is going to be an anchor of stability, will make us extra resistant and shielded from exterior shocks and crises and can contribute to the development of funding local weather.”

For banks, the change of foreign money carries some prices, Tamara Perko, head of the Croatian Banking Affiliation, informed Reuters.

“We’ve got one-off price of about 100 million euro for all the means of the transition to the euro. So far as annual price is worried we’ve 130 million euro of misplaced revenues a 12 months,” she mentioned. She didn’t elaborate, however media studies have famous that banks will lose income from conversions to and from euros after the change.

“On the constructive aspect we is not going to have foreign money danger any extra.”

On the large change-over day on Jan. 1, EU Fee President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic plan to take a stroll via Zagreb streets, have a espresso and pay for it in euros.