when was the euro introduced as legal currency
History of the euro The euro came into existence on 1 January 1999, although it had been a goal of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors since the 1960s. After tough negotiations, particularly due to opposition from the United Kingdom, the Maastricht Treaty entered into force in 1993 with the goal of creating an economic and monetary union by 1999 for all EU states except the UK and Denmark (even though Denmark has a fixed exchange rate policy with the euro).
European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB; German: Europäische Zentralbank (EZB), French: Banque centrale européenne (BCE)) is the central bank for the euro and administers monetary policy of the eurozone, which consists of 19 EU member states and is one of the largest currency areas in the world. It is one of the world's most important central banks and is one of the seven institutions of the European Union (EU) listed in the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The capital stock of the bank is owned by the central banks of all 28 EU member states.[2] The Treaty of Amsterdam established the bank in 1998, and it is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. As of 2015[update] the President of the ECB is Mario Draghi, former governor of the Bank of Italy, former member of the World Bank,[3] and former managing director of the Goldman Sachs international division (2002–2005).[3][4] The bank primarily occupied the Eurotower prior to, and during, the construction of the new headquarters.