The European Commission said on Wednesday that Croatia was ready to join the euro zone from 2023.
Below is a timeline of the euro zone's expansion.
1999 - 11 countries set up the euro zone, still only in electronic form: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
2001 - Greece joins the still electronic euro zone
2002 - Euro notes and coins come into circulation
2007 - Slovenia joins
2008 - Cyprus and Malta join
2009 - Slovakia joins
2011 - Estonia joins
2014 - Latvia joins
2015 - Lithuania joins
2023 - Croatia set to join
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski)
