It was seven years ago - Jan 1, 2002 - that the European Union welcomed the Euro as the official currency of its member nations (although there are still a few EU countries that have not yet adopted it).
It was a huge event then - of course - but even now, with the benefit if hindsight, I still think that this has to be among the top five biggest economic events of the past 100 years.
In order to adopt the Euro, these countries had to look beyond whatever cultural, historical, or even sentimental bonds they may have had with their former currencies. Moreover, the adoption of the Euro tended to force these nations to really begin seeing themselves as part of a larger union itself. Some critics have even called the EU (somewhat derisively, I suspect), the "United States of Europe". Perhaps it is a certain reluctance to join the others and run with the herd is what has kept the UK, Denmark and Sweden from adopting this currency in spite of being among the original EU members. Today, January 1, 2008, Slovakia becomes the latest country to join the Eurozone and adopt the Euro as its native currency.
No comments:
Post a Comment