The euro was introduced on 1 January 1999 in accordance with the Maastricht Treaty.

In 1999, several European nations adopted a single currency called the euro to strengthen and stabilize the continent’s economy. While some goals of the euro have been realized, some remain out of reach.

First, participating countries fixed their domestic currencies to the euro. This means that their currencies were not allowed to fluctuate against the euro or against each other. In its history, euro was launched as an electronic and cash currency and became legal tender on 1 January 2002.

On July 1, 2002, the German Mark, French Franc, Italian Lira and other currencies ceased to exist, and on the same day, also the European Central Bank begun running the monetary policy of the countries which were using the common currency.

When looking at the history of euro, we can see that attempts to create a single currency go back some 20 years. The chart below shows the value of the euro against the US dollar. Before 1999, history of euro is shown as a basket of the 11 legacy currencies.

Per history of euro, originally twelve (12) of the 15 EU countries (Germany, France, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland, Greece and Ireland) were members of the so-called Eurozone. Euro history tells us that these states were joined later by Slovenia (2007), Cyprus (2008), Malta (2008), and Slovakia (2009).

The history of euro is that on 1 January 2002 the euro replaces the old national currencies. We can see in the history of euro chart above that European currencies have always fluctuated against the dollar, even as debates have raged about the euro. The euro became the single currency of 12 European states in 2002.