site.btaCroatia Ready with Eurocent Designs, But Not Quite Yet
ESD 16:01:01 08-02-2022
DT1557ES.115
115 INSIDE THE BALKANS
Croatia Ready with Eurocent Designs,
But Not
Quite Yet
Sofia, February 8 (Sofia Angelova of BTA) - Croatia is heading unwaveringly towards the euro-zone where it plans to become a full-fledged member in the beginning of 2023. Zagreb is preparing diligently for the historical moment: deadlines when parallel circulation of the euro and the Croatian kuna will begin have been set and the design of Croatian euro-coins was presented at the end of last week. The central bank governor, Boris Vujcic, availed himself of the occasion to inform Croatians that the operation of substituting the national currency for euro would cost over 900 million kuna (119 million euro).
Unlike the euro banknotes, identical for all euro-zone countries, euro coins and euro cents have characteristic design presenting the national symbols of each member country.
In Croatia's case, one of these is the chequy (Croatian checkerboard), which will be the background on all coins. The two euro coin will feature the geographical map of Croatia with the edge inscription citing a line from the 17th century pastoral play ''Dubravka" by Ivan Gundulic.
A design with Nikola Tesla was chosen for the 10c, 20c and 50c coins, and a design with ligature bound letters "H" and "R" in Glagolitic script was chosen for 1c, 2c and 5c coins to mark its traditional use in manuscripts.
The marten (kuna in Croatian, as the national currency is called) was initially intended to adorn the 1 euro coin. However, the designer Stjepan Pranjkovic withdrew his design after days of social media controversy as the coin in question bears an uncanny resemblance to an image taken by a Nottingham-based wildlife photographer Iain H. Leach.
Pranjkovic said he had decided to withdraw his proposal "in order not to complicate the situation any further by possible uncertainties surrounding the matter. I apologize to everyone, particularly to the Croatian National Bank, the Croatian government, and the Croatian public," Pranjkovic said in his letter. He also returned the best design award.
The best design carried a 70,000 kuna (9,300 euro) award. Index.hr news website also reported that he won two second-place awards, each worth 35,000 kuna (4,650 euro), meaning he won a total of 140,000 kuna (18,600 euro) for his three best-ranked designs.
At the beginning of the scandal, Iain Leach told the "Jutarnji list" that the photo was taken in 2005 in Scotland, that he did not mind it being used to adorn the coin, but he would want his authorship recognized and to receive some payment. The right decision had been made and that was the end of the story for him, he told Dnevnik.hr.
Competition runner Boris Ljubicic, who was not among the winners, told Dnevnik.hr that it had not been organized well for anyone could have sent a design, both specialists and non-specialists. In the long run 1,300 proposals had been received and were quite impossible to review.
The Union of Croatian Designers also issued a statement saying it expected the central bank to take the responsibility for the unprofessional competition, recalling that it had offered cooperation and support from the very beginning but that had been declined.
The image of Tesla also gave rise to polemics, for Tesla was an ethnic Serb but was born in a village today located in Croatia. When the Croatian central bank announced that his image could possibly appear on the euro coin, the Serbian central bank declared that if that happened it would take the respective steps before EU institutions for that would be "appropriation of cultural and scientific heritage of the Serbian people". Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic commented at that time that he considered the fact that Tesla was a Serb born in Croatia a plus and he saw no problem with that.
After some consideration, on Tuesday the central bank said it has decided to announce a new tender for the design and implementation of the Croatian side of the euro coin with a kuna motif, noting that the new tender will not jeopardize the timely production of Croatian euro coins, Dnevnik.hr reported.
Croatia joined the ERM II mechanism together with Bulgaria, in July 2020. The earliest date for euro adoption, which requires two years of ERM participation, is July 10, 2022.
In June 2021, Prime Minister Plenkovic said the government's ambition was to join the eurozone on January 1, 2023. The European Commission will assess Croatia's progress in May 2022. The official decision for euro adoption rests with the EU ECOFIN council and is expected to be in the summer of 2022.
In January, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced that from September 5, prices in the country would be displayed in both kuna and euro, until the end of 2023.
According to an Eurobarometer poll of July 2021, 61 per cent of the Croats support the adoption of the common European currency used in 17 of the 27 EU member countries. RY/BR
/DT/
DT1557ES.115
115 INSIDE THE BALKANS
Croatia Ready with Eurocent Designs,
But Not
Quite Yet
Sofia, February 8 (Sofia Angelova of BTA) - Croatia is heading unwaveringly towards the euro-zone where it plans to become a full-fledged member in the beginning of 2023. Zagreb is preparing diligently for the historical moment: deadlines when parallel circulation of the euro and the Croatian kuna will begin have been set and the design of Croatian euro-coins was presented at the end of last week. The central bank governor, Boris Vujcic, availed himself of the occasion to inform Croatians that the operation of substituting the national currency for euro would cost over 900 million kuna (119 million euro).
Unlike the euro banknotes, identical for all euro-zone countries, euro coins and euro cents have characteristic design presenting the national symbols of each member country.
In Croatia's case, one of these is the chequy (Croatian checkerboard), which will be the background on all coins. The two euro coin will feature the geographical map of Croatia with the edge inscription citing a line from the 17th century pastoral play ''Dubravka" by Ivan Gundulic.
A design with Nikola Tesla was chosen for the 10c, 20c and 50c coins, and a design with ligature bound letters "H" and "R" in Glagolitic script was chosen for 1c, 2c and 5c coins to mark its traditional use in manuscripts.
The marten (kuna in Croatian, as the national currency is called) was initially intended to adorn the 1 euro coin. However, the designer Stjepan Pranjkovic withdrew his design after days of social media controversy as the coin in question bears an uncanny resemblance to an image taken by a Nottingham-based wildlife photographer Iain H. Leach.
Pranjkovic said he had decided to withdraw his proposal "in order not to complicate the situation any further by possible uncertainties surrounding the matter. I apologize to everyone, particularly to the Croatian National Bank, the Croatian government, and the Croatian public," Pranjkovic said in his letter. He also returned the best design award.
The best design carried a 70,000 kuna (9,300 euro) award. Index.hr news website also reported that he won two second-place awards, each worth 35,000 kuna (4,650 euro), meaning he won a total of 140,000 kuna (18,600 euro) for his three best-ranked designs.
At the beginning of the scandal, Iain Leach told the "Jutarnji list" that the photo was taken in 2005 in Scotland, that he did not mind it being used to adorn the coin, but he would want his authorship recognized and to receive some payment. The right decision had been made and that was the end of the story for him, he told Dnevnik.hr.
Competition runner Boris Ljubicic, who was not among the winners, told Dnevnik.hr that it had not been organized well for anyone could have sent a design, both specialists and non-specialists. In the long run 1,300 proposals had been received and were quite impossible to review.
The Union of Croatian Designers also issued a statement saying it expected the central bank to take the responsibility for the unprofessional competition, recalling that it had offered cooperation and support from the very beginning but that had been declined.
The image of Tesla also gave rise to polemics, for Tesla was an ethnic Serb but was born in a village today located in Croatia. When the Croatian central bank announced that his image could possibly appear on the euro coin, the Serbian central bank declared that if that happened it would take the respective steps before EU institutions for that would be "appropriation of cultural and scientific heritage of the Serbian people". Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic commented at that time that he considered the fact that Tesla was a Serb born in Croatia a plus and he saw no problem with that.
After some consideration, on Tuesday the central bank said it has decided to announce a new tender for the design and implementation of the Croatian side of the euro coin with a kuna motif, noting that the new tender will not jeopardize the timely production of Croatian euro coins, Dnevnik.hr reported.
Croatia joined the ERM II mechanism together with Bulgaria, in July 2020. The earliest date for euro adoption, which requires two years of ERM participation, is July 10, 2022.
In June 2021, Prime Minister Plenkovic said the government's ambition was to join the eurozone on January 1, 2023. The European Commission will assess Croatia's progress in May 2022. The official decision for euro adoption rests with the EU ECOFIN council and is expected to be in the summer of 2022.
In January, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced that from September 5, prices in the country would be displayed in both kuna and euro, until the end of 2023.
According to an Eurobarometer poll of July 2021, 61 per cent of the Croats support the adoption of the common European currency used in 17 of the 27 EU member countries. RY/BR
/DT/
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