• What is Euro? What is expected of the Euro?
• What has been achieved with the introduction of the Euro?
• What has prevented the Euro from bringing out its potential?
• Why did the efforts to integrate Europe’s equity market fail to pay off?
• What are vested interests?
• What is the difference between full ownership and beneficial ownership?
• What did a secret conducted by the European Commission evidence?
• How big are the cross-border payments of all the payments sent by banks within the Euro zone?
• Why would a business refuse to accept cheques as payment in a cross-border transaction?
• What does the sentence mean – “What use is a single currency if citizens and companies can use it only on paper or in electronic form in their home country”?
• What does “pan-European spirit” refer to?
• What in your opinion should be done in order for the Euro to deliver its potential economic benefits?
  

• 真实情况结果比我们预期的还要怪异。(turn out)
• 因为丑闻，这位部长最后不得不提交了辞职书。(in the wake of)
• 他投钱买了些采矿业的股票，迄今尚未分得任何红利。(as yet)
• 这所学校已经废除了学生不能开车进校的规定。
• 流动性是用来评判金融票据好坏的一个重要因素。
• 目前所有迹象都表明价格会出现新一轮的上涨。
• 一些经济学家指出，低通货膨胀并不一定是好事。
• 由于缺乏可行的激励机制，这家公司的创新能力已经开始显现枯竭的迹象。
• 要在经济活动中消除垄断是非常困难的，因为既得利益者会竭尽全力地阻止这种改革。
• 乍一看，交通拥堵的问题似乎难以解决。
• 容易找工作的好时光似乎很快就过去了。
• 除了遭遇交通事故以外，他还染上了肺炎。
• 现在的孩子在父母和老师的压力下周末都得去上课。
  

To further facilitate trade within the single market, European leaders felt a single currency should be created to eliminate foreign-exchange hurdles encountered by companies doing business across European borders. After several rounds of negotiations and agreements, the Treaty on European Union was signed in Maastricht in December 1991. The European Union was formally established as the successor to the European Economic Community, and the treaty laid the groundwork for the completion of the economic and monetary union by calling for a new European currency.

The European Union introduced this new currency on January 1, 1999, christening it the "Euro." Like many other changes implemented by the European Union, the Euro was not launched without difficulties. During the launch of the Euro, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark all chose to "opt out" of participation due to political pressures in each country. One other member, Greece, failed to satisfy the economic criteria for convergence, which required members of the "Euro zone" to meet targets for price stability, long-term interest rates, government budget deficits, and government debt. Consequently, the conversion to the Euro was initiated in only eleven of the fifteen member states in 1999.

Transactions in member states beginning in 1999 could be denominated in Euros. The actual Euro currency and coins began circulation in 2002.