EUR / Euro
EUR / Euro appeared on the 1st of January 1999 and united 11 European countries into one powerful economic alliance that deal with the fifth part of all goods and services produced in the world trade. The Euro-region ("Eur-area") consists of: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and France and occupy the territory of 2365000 square kilometers with population of 291 million people (there are 269 millions in USA and 126 millions in Japan).
The creation of united European currency is undoubtedly the greatest financial experiment in history as there was no success in attempts to create economical unions before that.
The table below demonstrates cross-rate values of 11 currencies fixed on the 31st of December 1998.
| Currency | Units for 1 Euro |
|---|---|
| Deutsche mark | 1.95583 |
| French franc | 6.55957 |
| Italian Lira | 1936.21 |
| Spanish peseta | 166.386 |
| Portuguese escudo |
200.482 |
| Finnish Markka | 5.94573 |
| Irish pound | 0.787564 |
| Belgian / Luxembourg Franc |
40.3399 |
| Dutch Guilder | 2.20371 |
| Austrian schilling | 13.7603 |
