ECONOMY - FINANCE - BUSINESS / Emu

Twenty years after single currency launch, economic and monetary union remains incomplete

Brussels, 04/01/2019 (Agence Europe)

1 January 2019 marked the twentieth anniversary of the launch of the euro in eleven Member States of the European Union.

Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain were the first countries to adopt the single currency, joined in 2001 by Greece. Euro cash was put into circulation in these European Union countries in January 2002.

"[The euro] has delivered prosperity and protection to our citizens and we must ensure that it...