Backgrounder: Timeline of euro

BRUSSELS, Dec. 30 (Chinese media) -- The euro will celebrate its 10th anniversary

on Jan. 1, 2009 with Slovakia becoming the 16th country to use the European

single currency. The following is principal dates in the history of the euro.

-- December 1969: The European summit in The Hague officially set the

objective of a single European currency and entrusted then Luxembourg Prime

Minister Pierre Werner to draft a report about the launch of the currency before

1980.

-- October 1970: The Werner Plan proposed three stages for the development

of a single currency, which should include the free circulation of goods within

the European Economic Community (EEC) and the fixing of currency parities.

-- March 1979: The European Monetary System (EMS) came into effect, with an

exchange rate mechanism and the European Currency Unit (ECU).

-- February 1992: The Maastricht Treaty was signed in the Dutchcity of

Maastricht, setting out a timetable and criteria for joining the euro.

-- January 1994: The European Monetary Institute (EMI), the embryo of the

European Central Bank (ECB), was launched.

-- December 1995: The European summit in Madrid named the single currency

the euro.

-- December 1996: In Dublin, European leaders drew up the Stability and

Growth Pact, which demands single currency states follow rigorous budgetary

guidelines on a permanent basis.

-- May 1998: The European summit in Brussels formally launched the euro,

confirming 11 states as initiators of the currency. They are Belgium, France,

Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria, Finland

and Ireland. Greece failed to meet the criteria for initiating the euro then,

and entered the euro zone in 2001.

-- July 1998, the European Central Bank replaced the European Monetary

Bureau, with its headquarters based in Germany's Frankfurt.

-- Jan. 1, 1999: Official birth of the euro, after currency parities were

fixed irreversibly. Three days later, the euro began to be launched in the

exchange markets.

-- Jan. 1, 2002: the euro notes and coins were introduced.

-- September 2003: The Swedes voted against adopting the euro.

-- Jan. 1, 2007: Slovenia became the 13th country to use the euro.

-- Jan. 1, 2008: Cyprus and Malta joined the euro zone.

-- Jan. 1, 2009: Slovakia joins.