(ANSA) - ZAGREB - The Croatian government has presented a detailed plan to join the single European currency, which entails Croatia's entry to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) system by 2020, in view of the full adoption of the euro at a later date.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic expressed his conviction that the country could set the kuna, the Croatian national currency, to ERM-II in 2020, when Croatia is expected to assume the presidency of the EU Council.

''Croatia, being the youngest member of the EU, has two crucial political goals: we want to enter into the Schengen area and adopt the single currency'', said Plenkovic.

The prime minister did not want to make conjectures about a date for the adoption of the euro, underlining that the entry to the eurozone does not only depend on the country's macroeconomic indicators, but also on the political will of the current members to welcome a new state.

At this moment, Croatia fulfills almost all the crucial economic and financial requirements to adopt the single currency, but these will have to remain stable over the next few years. In the 2013 EU Membership Agreement, the country has also pledged to join the euro. With the Prime Minister's strategy, the government wants to initiate a broad public debate on the benefits and weaknesses associated with the euro.

Analysts agree, however, that Croatia will receive many benefits, being now the most euro-centred country among all those who do not yet have the single European currency; 80 percent of credits and savings are already denominated in euros, such as, for example, rents and real estate prices. (ANSA).