Euro
The euro is the official currency of seventeen member states of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain). The currency is also used in five further countries with formal agreements and six other countries without such agreements. The euro was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency in 1999 and launched as physical coins and banknotes on January 1, 2002. The euro is managed and administered by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Eurosystem. The ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all member states, and the operation of the Eurozone payment systems. The Maastricht Treaty (1993) obliged all then-current members of the EU to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary requirements, but not all states have done so. The United Kingdom and Denmark negotiated exemptions.Sweden turned down the euro in a 2003 referendum, and has circumvented the obligation to adopt the euro by not meeting the monetary and budgetary requirements. All nations that have joined the EU since the 1993 implementation of the Maastricht Treaty have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. .
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