Slovenia Adopts the Euro

The Slovenian capital of Ljubljana wore a festive look on New Year’s Eve, with decorations adorning entire streets. What lent this a special touch was the Euro symbol displayed on flags, balloons, and even T-shirts. The occasion was the adoption of the Euro as the Slovenian national currency.

The Euro has long been the benchmark currency of all countries seeking entry to the European Union. After much debate in the initial stages when the move to adopt a single currency for the whole of Europe was announced, all countries have been migrating to the Euro. Slovenia’s move to adopt it as its national currency makes it the 13th European nation to do so.

The Minister of Finance of Slovenia, Andrej Bajuk inaugurated the usage of the Euro by using a cash vending machine to withdraw Slovenian Euros. In a statement, Andre Bajuk said, “We are extremely happy and proud. We took this as a national project and we have indeed achieved and fulfilled all the criteria to make this a reality. It’s extremely important for us.”

With this move, Slovenia has made history as the first former communist country to adopt the currency as its very own. It is now officially part of the Euro zone. Slovenia will phase out its existing currency, the Tolar rapidly, setting itself a deadline of the next 14 days.

Though there may seem to be concerns overriding the wisdom of the move from the Tolar to the Euro, since this is the fourth currency they are adopting in less than two decades – they adopted the Tolar when they broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991 – the Slovenes themselves seemed pretty comfortable with the move.

The primary concern is the fact that it may trigger inflation. The thinking on the streets is that while adopting the Euro would make traveling across Europe easier, it could lead to a rise in prices. However, this seems to the thinking of a minority, as even critics of the government welcomed the change. According to them, it would lead the government to fasten the process of reforming the economy.