The euro was born in 1 99965438+1October1,but it was only used as "electronic money" at that time. Euro banknotes and coins were issued on June 65438+1 October1day, 2002. After two months of dual currency circulation with the national currencies of euro zone countries, it officially replaced the national currencies of 1 2 euro zone countries on March, 2002, becoming a veritable European unified currency.

On June 65438+1 October1day, 2002, the euro officially entered the circulation field of the euro zone 12 countries. 65438+1October 28th, February 9th and February17th, Dutch, Irish and French currencies successively withdrew from their domestic circulation fields. On February 28th, today, nine other countries-Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria, Portugal and Finland-gave up the exchange of old coins, and their currencies completely stopped circulating in the market. From this day on, euro banknotes and coins were officially popularized in the circulation field of 12 countries, and 12 currency, which was once closely related to the economic life of euro zone residents, completely withdrew from the historical stage.

Slovenia joined the euro zone on June 65438+ 10/day, 2007, and became a member of 1 3. Cyprus joined the euro zone with Malta at 0: 00 on June 5438+1 October1day, 2008, thus increasing the number of euro zone members from the previous 13 to the present 15. The national standard code of the euro is EUR. It's called euro in Hong Kong.

Therefore, by the end of June 5438+February 2008, there were 15 countries using Euro EUR, which were distributed in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.

EU countries that do not use the euro:

EU Member States: Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Therefore, the EU member countries that have not used the euro are Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Sweden and Britain.

The 65,438+00 new member States (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) that joined the EU in 2004 all promised to use the euro and abide by the discipline of economic and monetary union. However, there is no fixed time for them to join the euro zone. Each new member will join according to its own national conditions and timetable, but no new member, like Denmark and Sweden, chose not to use the euro when the euro zone started.

Switzerland is a permanent neutral country, not a member of the European Union, nor has it joined the euro zone.