Greece later joined the 11 members in 2001 to begin adopting the legal tender in 2002, after previously failing to meet economic standards required to join (History). The 12 members switched to their new currency on January 1, 2002 creating a two month transition period, in which both sets of currencies were to be used a legal tender, though change would be given in euros (Q&A). The old currencies were no longer in use on February 28, 2002 and in some countries, even earlier. For the next three months, the old national currencies were accepted at banks across the euro zone (Q&A). From July onwards, only the central banks in the euro zone have pledged to accept the old national legal tender (Q&A). Denmark, Sweden and the UK are the only countries in the European Union in which have not yet adopted the euro (Q&A). In all three nations, there was strong support that dropping their national currencies would give up too much independence (European). As for the future, there are 10 more countries in eastern Europe which may join the European Union, and adopt the euro in 2004: Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia (Q&A).
Many arguments have been given that support the existence of the euro. First and foremost, the value of the euro finally gives the US dollar a great rival. I believe the entire purpose of adopting the euro was to follow the path of the dollar and overtake it. Sure the euro might have started at $1.17, then fell in 2000 to $.88, but as of the end of June 2002, the euro has reached a 16 month high of $.99 (Solbes). Though there has been a decline in the American economy, due to the latest accounting scandals, the euro will still slowly, but surely increase in efforts to overtake the dollar. The entire continent of Europe is just too much to the U.S. economy to handle, as the population of Euroland (countries adopting the euro) exceeds 300 million surpassing the US (Eichengreen).
