Happy New Year - Euro Day - 1st January

 Wishing you all a very happy new year. May this brings you a lot of happiness and success. 

On this first day of the year, we'll also learn about Euro Day, a holiday commemorating the day on which 11 European countries adopted the euro, ushering in a new era for the continent. 

In 1929, Gustav Stresemann presented the notion of a single currency for the entire continent of Europe to the League of Nations. After World War I, new European nations were formed, which increased economic differences and gave rise to this ideology.

It wasn't until 1969 that the European Council charged the then-Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Pierre Werner, with creating strategies for lowering the volatility of exchange rates that the idea of an economic and monetary union in Europe began to take hold. The U.S. abolished the gold backing from the U.S. dollar, which caused all major currencies to drop, and thus setback to the European Monetary Union objectives.

After more than 30 years of planning—in fact, European leaders had been interested in introducing one currency for the entire continent since the 1960s—the term "euro" was formally accepted on December 16, 1995, and the euro currency was introduced on January 1, 1999. After protracted, difficult talks and significant opposition from the UK, the currency was essentially created in 1999. But it wasn't until 2002 that actual bills and coins started to circulate. Since then, the euro has rapidly seized control of each new member state of the European Union, and its influence has continued to grow as the number of EU members continues to rise.

ok, What was the currency before Euro? 

Before the introduction of the euro, the nations that make up the eurozone had no common currency. However, the exchange rates for these nations were set on the ECU.

Eleven signatory nations to the Maastricht Treaty were the first to embrace the euro. This encompasses Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, France, Italy, and Luxembourg. Ireland, the Netherlands, and Austria.

The euro was never utilized in the U.K. The United Kingdom and Denmark, both of which were still EU members, agreed to opt-outs that let them keep using their respective national currencies, the British pound sterling and Danish krone, respectively.