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The Original 11 - 01 Jan 1999
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The original members of the eurozone were Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. It came into being on 01 Jan 1999, with the fixing of exchange
rates between the national currencies of the founder members.
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Milestones
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01 Jan 2001: Greece joined, to become the 12th member of the club.
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01 Jan 2002: euro notes and coins came into circulation. National currencies were abolished at the end of
February.
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01 Jan 2007: Slovenia became the 13th member country in a flawless changeover. The former national currency
was the tolar (currency code SIT) with an exchange rate of 239.854 tolars to the euro
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01 Jan 2008: Malta and Cyprus joined. EU Finance ministers gave their approval at the meeting held on 10th
July 2007. One euro replaced 0.585274 Cyprus pounds and 0.4293 Maltese lira.
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01 Jan 2009: Slovakia has joined, the 16th Eurozone country. The Slovak koruna is replaced at SKK 30.1260 to 1
EUR
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01 Jan 2011: Estonia joined, the 17th country, at a rate of 1 krooni (EEK) = 1 EUR
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Latest (Jun 2011):
Latvia's target date is 2014, and Romania's is 2015. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Lithuania do not
currently have a target date for adoption of the euro.
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No plans: Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom all have an opt-out. The same privilege is not offered to new
members of the EU.
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De facto users
Apart from Slovenia which has joined the eurozone, other former Yugoslav republics including Croatia have their
own currencies but are de-facto users of the euro for a wide range of transactions.
European micro-states including Monaco, Liechtenstein, Vatican City, San Marino and Andorra are either de-facto
users or have adopted the euro as their official currency.
Some former French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies use the Central African Franc, tied on a fixed exchange
rate to the euro of 100 CFA Francs = 0.152449
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More information
European Commission Economic and Financial Affairs site:
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/adoption/who_can_join/index_en.htm
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