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Date: 06/01/2000
- February 1992: Maastricht Treaty, which stipulated that a European single currency will be introduced by 1 January 1999 at the latest, is signed.
- November 1993: Maastricht enters into force.
- December 1995: Madrid European summit christens the single currency the 'euro', agrees that it will be introduced on 1 January 1999, and that notes and coins will enter into circulation on 1 January 2002 at the latest.
- June 1997: Amsterdam European summit approves the creation of a 'growth and stability' pact to support the introduction of the euro. EU leaders also set up a new exchange rate mechanism for countries which will not join the single currency in the first wave and agree the rules establishing the legal status of the euro.
- December 1997: The Luxembourg European summit approves rules designed to ensure national economic policies support the introduction of the euro.
- 25 March 1998: The European Monetary Institute (EMI) and European Commission announce that 11 EU countries have managed to meet the single currency's 'convergence criteria' and should be allowed to adopt the euro.
- 2 May 1998: At a special summit in Brussels, EU leaders approve the EMI/Commission recommendations, then spend hours arguing over who should be the first president of the European Central Bank (ECB). A bad-tempered compromise is eventually reached under which Dutchman Wim Duisenberg indicates that he will resign from the post half way through his five-year mandate to make way for France's central bank governor Jean-Claude Trichet.
- 1 January 1999: The euro is born and immediately begins losing ground to the dollar on the international currency markets.
- 1 January 2002: Euro notes and coins will enter into circulation in the 11 euro-zone countries.
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