Expansion of the Eurozone

The Euro and its Impact on the U.S. Economy The euro is the official currency of the following 12 European nations: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Finland. Although it has been the official currency since January 1,1999 it became physical tender which can be used by all participating countries on January 1,2002. The introduction of the euro into the world was truly a historic event; it represented a unity never before seen in the history of Europe, a common currency. After years of negotiations and much skepticism from around the globe, the implementation of the euro is no longer an abstract ideal, but a change that nations, corporations, and investors must

As of 2012, only seventeen of members of the European Union have decided to use Euros as their currency. In order for the members that adopted the Euro as their currency to successfully help their economic problems, the Eurozone members had to follow strict instructions put into place the European Union. The strict policies included strict control over inflation, government debt, and long-term interest rates (Mckee 525). The union put these strict policies into place to give the union the tools that it needed to take in order to help fix the economic crisis in each country participating in the Eurozone. Without the full cooperation of each country, it could cause the plans to fix the economic crisis within each country to fail because of the different interests by each individual country.

The euro is not the currency of all EU Member States. Two countries (Denmark and the United Kingdom) have ‘opt-out’ sections in the Treaty excusing them from involvement, while the rest (numerous of the more recently agreed EU members plus Sweden) have yet to meet the situations for approving the single currency.

The countries of the European Union today are France, the three Benelux countries, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Latvia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Romania.

The EU sought to simplify trade within European neighbors and to replace national currencies with a single shared currency that could compete with the dollar on the global stage. The members of the newly-formed European Union agreed to a fixed currency conversion rate when the Euro was adopted (Scheller). Initially, the EU only had 11 members, but membership has since grown to 25 member nations. These 25 member countries operate within what is called the Eurozone, over which the European Central Bank sets economic policy

The euro (€) is the official currency of the Eurozone, which consists of 17 EU member states using this currency. The euro is also the 2nd largest reserve currency as well as the 2nd most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. As of November 2013, with more than €951 billion in circulation, the euro has the highest combined value of banknotes and coins in circulation in the world, having surpassed the U.S. dollar.

For many generations, it was taught that the expansion of Europe to the Americas, (also known as the European expansion), had a huge impact on all societies of the old world. The importance of this was taught to societies all across the world, and was indeed a necessary occurrence. Up until recently, the idea was never given any real thought for the majority of people as to how, over many generations in the family and throughout the passage of time, how they precisely got where they are currently today, as well as what kind of pain and suffering the continents known as North and South America was initially founded on. European expansion did have some positive effects for the Europeans, such as new lands and resources, however at the same time it had caused many more negative effects on both the Natives and Europeans.

The euro is the currency that is used by these European Union countries: Belgium, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Malta, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and France.

The Eurozone is the economic region formed by those member countries of the European Union that have adopted the euro. (Perry, S. 1994).

The choice for the European Union to adopt a single currency for the European Community was first introduced in the 1970 Werner Report. This idea was then developed into the European Monetary System (EMS). The Maastricht Treaty (1992) made EMU part of EU law and set out a plan for a single currency to be established by 1999 . It was thought that a common currency would increase efficiency in the EU, thereby raising the standard of living and develop a sense of European Identity. It was agreed that in order to adopt the single currency, EU members had to meet certain conditions. The conditions include to keep their exchange rates within bands called the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), have low interest rates and low inflation and keep government spending and borrowing under control. In 1998, 11 member states had agreed to fix their exchange rates where the European Central Bank would take over and have the power to change their interest rates. The single currency is now, in 2016, is shared by 19 member states.

As of 2014, nineteen of the twenty-nine members of the EU have adopted the euro, thus becoming part of the Eurozone (European Commission, 2014). According to the European Commission (2014):

A few European countries (17) came together to form EU on 1st January 1999 establishing common currency for all the EU nations i.e. Euro.

When the European Union was established in 1993, its goal was to create a common currency in Europe, called the euro (“Eurozone”). This goal was achieved in 1999, and the euro is now used by 17 European Union countries, including Greece (“EUR”). Greece adopted the euro in 2001, and their economy has been struggling ever since. Since joining the European Union, Greece has struggled economically, politically, and might continue to struggle in the future.

This essay will analyse the theoretical approach on the importance of the 2004 enlargement of the EU and propose an alternative view on why is enlargement important to the EU survival and development. The first chapter will give a broad outlook of the Eastern Enlargement in 2004, the Treaties and institutional change made to allow for the biggest enlargement up to date. The second part of the essay depicts the main views on importance and effects of the Eastern Enlargement. Finally, the last chapter will it will argument the incentives of politicians in both legislative bodies to push for further integration. The aim of this essay will be to produce a different

In 1999 seventeen countries in the European Union adopted the Euro forming a Euro Area. With the adoption of the Euro these seventeen countries discontinued their old currencies and monetary policies. Monetary Policies