Euro celebrating its 15th birthday – Eurozone currency supported by 56% residents

The mutual European currency – euro – celebrated its 15th birthday on Sunday, January 1, 2017.

Euro has been facing crisis after crisis in the past years, but it has still managed to get firm support throughout the 19-member Eurozone, especially among the young generations which have never used the old national currencies of their countries, reports AFP.

Euro was implemented on January 1, 1999, and was initially only a virtual currency used in book-keeping and financial transactions. The banknotes and coins were introduced on January 1, 2001.

The graphical symbol of euro derives from the Greek letter epsilon and signifies the initial letter of the word “Europe”, and the two parallel lines are meant to symbolize the stability of the unified European currency. The coins have a common reverse throughout Europe, but each country has its own obverse. Austria, for example, opted for Mozart, whereas Ireland chose the Celtic harp.

The euro banknotes never show people or real places, illustrating fictive architecture instead.

As AFP writes, the introduction of euro did not result in love at first sight, as many people perceived it as leading to unwanted price increases. Such an attitude, however, subsided with time, tanks to the ease of travel and cross-border business, as well as the lack of worrying about exchange rate fluctuations.

Nowadays, 56% of the residents of the 19-member block believe that the existence of euro is good for their country, as shown by the results of the survey carried out by the European Commission, in which 17,500 residents of the Eurozone took part.

The support among those aged 15 to 24 amounted to as much as 68%.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Bruxelles

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mutual European currency

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European Commission