Euro - EUR

The Euro is the European Union official currency and more specifically one of 16 of its members are part of the Euro area.

The currency fiduciary form in circulation on January 1, 2002, the Euro had been used and quoted on the foreign exchange market, Forex, since January 1, 1999.

Second currency of the world for transactions and the second currency negotiated as a foreign currency after the Dollar (the Euro represents about 20% of the currency sales and purchases concluded each year on the Forex); in December 2006, the Euro turned into the first currency in the world according to the number of notes in circulation.

Members of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden obtained an “opting-out” rider and kept their own national currencies. But the accessions to the Euro area have been accelerating since 2001 (Greece in 2001, then Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus, Malta and to finish Slovakia on January 2009) and the accessions of other numerous countries (Poland, Hungary, Romania etc) are foreseen according to a “more or less” precise calendar that stretch to 2014.

Since its creation, the Euro has been depending on the floating exchange rates regime established between the main worldwide currencies since 1973, whereas currencies as the CFA Franc (West Africa) or the CFP Franc (French territories of the Pacific) adopted a fixed parity regime with the Euro.

During the two first years after its introduction, the Euro temporarily sharply depreciated against the American dollar, the pound sterling and the Swiss Franc, the EUR/USD cross reached its lowest level at 0.8252 (1 Euro = 0.8252 Dollar) during May 2000.

Since the effective put in circulation of the coins and notes and in a context of a monetary policy called “Strong Euro” (not favorable to the European exports) led by the European Central Bank, the general trend observed on the exchange market is the Euro reprising one against the other currencies; even if a great number of “pauses” or “adjustments” were observed, the EUR/USD reached its higher point on July 2008 at 1.6038 (1 Euro = 1.6038 Dollar). Since this date, the Euro clearly decreased against the Dollar.