International
Europe enters new monetary era
By Vaiju Naravane
PARIS, JAN. 1. Europeans rang in the New Year with a new currency, the euro, which became legal tender for 300 million people at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday night.
Imaginative fireworks around the euro theme stretching from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, heralded what many European leaders described as ``an historic event'' and a ``major milestone'' in Europe's history.
The first recorded euro purchase, 1 kg of lychees, was made on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion whose geographical position makes it the first European territory to welcome the New Year and handle the euro.
In Paris, huge queues formed outside Automated Teller Machines to get a feel of the new bank notes. Most cash machines were out of order but people queued patiently outside those that worked in freezing temperatures to be amongst the first to get their hands on the new money.
``I want to buy myself a drink with a euro note, not with a coin. I want to feel the notes, see them, smell them before dawn breaks,'' said Stephane, a college student.
At Carr's, a popular Irish pub, euro aficionados from several European countries swapped coins. The only currency notes to be had here were French ones and these were adjudged ``ugly, garish and fake looking, a bit like monopoly money.''
Several other currencies outside the 12-nation euro zone will be pegged to the euro, including those from Eastern Europe and Africa, particularly Francophone Africa which has been part of the CFA franc zone.
The euro thus becomes the most widely-used single currency since the Roman Empire. The euro project has its roots in post-War reconstruction. After two world wars devastated the old continent, European leaders, particularly Germany's Konrad Adenauer and France's Charles de Gaulle, felt it was important to bind the continent together through closer economic and political ties in order to ensure peace and stability. They launched the common market, the European Economic Community, with the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. In 1993, the dream of a single currency became a reality with the signing of the Maastricht treaty on European construction.
Europe has not seen war since the end of the Second World War, except for tensions between Turkey and Greece (Turkey continues to be denied membership) and internal, localised conflict, especially in the Balkans.
Banks have been working overtime, handing out small euro starter kits of coins and sending truckloads of the old currency to central banks for destruction. National mints have been running extra shifts in order to print the new notes and issue the new coins. It has been an incredible logistical exercise. The 12 euro zone countries together have printed enough notes to stretch from the earth to the moon and back twice over. The E.U. members Britain, Denmark and Sweden have opted not to join the single currency, but the euro could become a parallel currency there too as it is expected to be accepted by large stores such as Marks and Spencers, Harrods or Ikea.
In Vienna, the European Commission President, Mr. Romano Prodi, marked the launch by buying his wife a bouquet of red and white roses, saying he was happy with the launch so far, but work would be needed to educate citizens about the currency.
In France, the cash launch will be complicated by planned strikes by banking and postal workers called for Wednesday.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
International
|
