THE DAY EURO CAME


The  day  EURO  Came
Celebrations in Brussels the administrative capitol of the European Union were on a grand scale. There were some fantastic light & sound shows. Crowds were cheering and enjoying the event, which was celebrating the arrival of the Euro. European Union officials claimed it as a historic event of Europe’s history.
European Union had been formed some years ago, and the idea of a common currency of the 12 European countries was floated in the Treaty of Rome in 1957. It was in the Treaty of Maastricht in 1991 that set the route for a single common currency. The idea of a common currency gained ground and in 1995 the euro got its name.


Euros had started to be used as a medium of exchange in financial transactions since 1999, but New Year’s Day 2002 was the debut for the Euro notes and coins. People all over Europe were bringing in their used old and torn mark’s, drachmas, liras, pesetas, francs, schilling etc to purchase anything and getting back Euro notes and coins as change. The event was being enjoyed by all.
The different coloured euro notes had architectural designs of various European countries. The European Commission reported that the introduction of new euro notes and coins went smoothly during the first day of their becoming legal tender in 12 European countries.


Britain opted out of the Maastricht treaty and said that it shall not be joining the experiment for the time being.  Denmark and Sweden also did not take part.
In most of EU everyone wanted to be the first to get Euros in exchange of old currency notes.


Some die-hards had doubts and hoped that the fad shall die a natural death; and they shall have their Portuguese, Belgian, Luxembourger or even German money back again. EU leaders believed the launch of this currency shall strengthen economic and political cooperation across the continent; and this may eventually lead to the Euro rivaling the U.S. dollar as the world’s dominant currency.

What happened in these later 16 years is current history.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

लपक लो

Image
  Let us consider a couple of scenarios, which all of us have encountered sometime. ========== Me : “ You see, the situation is like …” The Other person : “Wait, I shall tell you what it’s like. The thing is …”. And he goes on to explain the same thing as I had started to tell. The message immediately implies that what I was going to say was incomplete info, and what the “Other Person” has said is clearer. ========== I post some interesting thing in a social media group. The Other Person , a group member, immediately posts several links about it from Google, Wikipedia; plus copy paste from some news site or News article, which tells exactly the same thing as I said. Here also the message immediately implies that what I posted was incomplete info, and what they posted is making it clearer. Courtesy pexels.com ========== There can be several other examples, but you get the drift.           What is meant here by लपक लो is a hijacking of sorts, a hijacking of your th
Read more

INDIAN RESTAURANTS ABROAD

                 Indian cuisine is liked the world over and to cater to the hungry people,   restaurants with Indian sounding names have sprung up all over, even in remote corners where you least expect them. Foreign nationals unless they have been to India or dined at an Indian’s home, hardly know the correct taste of Indian dishes. They do not know any better. This is where the con takes place, with various non-Indians taking   advantage and dishing   out rubbish to unsuspecting foreigners; giving a bad name to Indian food in the bargain. The scam comes to light when   Indians travelling abroad or newly gone to reside there   become homesick for Indian food see a restaurant proclaiming itself as serving ‘Indian food’, visit these ‘Indian’ restaurants   in their outings,   to enjoy the dishes offered. In nearly every case, the food served there does not meet their expectations, and later on they find out that the owners are either Bangladeshi or Pakistani masquerading as ‘Indi
Read more

Towel on the Chair Back

TOWEL on the CHAIR BACK All of us, some time or the other, have had to meet a government officer in his office. One thing we would definitely have not missed noticing, whether the officer is present in the room or away. It could be the Finance, Police, PWD, Electricity, Secretariat or any other. It can be seen across all departments of the government, regardless of their intense rivalry with each other, or contrasting nature of work. What is it ?   It is a white towel spread neatly on the officer’s chair back. Why do they keep it that way ? Here are some answers from Social Media … The most common explanation is, its because of the sweat. Historically AC has not been common in Indian government offices despite the very hot and humid weather. Sitting on an office chair, your back will sweat and the sweat will get into the upholstery of the backrest, and gradually it will start smelling. Placing a towel soaks up the sweat to some extent and prevents this from happening
Read more