|
Europe Embraces The Arrival Of The Euro
 |
| Celebrations
mark the birth of the euro
|
FRANKFURT, Jan. 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The European Central Bank has finally implemented the biggest monetary changeover in history with the long-awaited rollout of euro cash.
The ultimate success of the new currency, however, may still depend on whether monetary union can lead to greater economic and political integration within Europe, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
By midday on Tuesday, just 12 hours after the single currency became legal tender for 304 million people across the entire euro area, no major glitches had been reported in the changeover process, a staggering achievement given the scope and complexity of the operation, said AFP.
An ECB spokeswoman said that 50 to 85 percent of cash machines in all 12 participating countries had already been successfully switched over and that proportion would rise even further by the evening.
ECB President, Wim Duisenberg, cautioned Tuesday that "some problems are bound to occur here and there. It could not be otherwise in such a vast undertaking. But I'm convinced that they will be limited in scale and that we will tackle them.”
The arrival of euro bank notes and coins has brought with it a heightened level of excitement. Opinion polls show that people are feeling increasingly enthusiastic about the currency now that it has finally materialized.
However, critics are skeptical of the bank's monetary policy decisions and lay much of the blame on Duisenberg's.
They contend that one interest rate across 12 economies with different structures can result in one country having a higher or lower rate than local conditions require, resulting in inflation or unemployment, particularly if economic policies are not converging, a concern that has kept Britain from adopting the euro.
In any case, the ECB will not stand alone in its efforts to guarantee the future success of the euro. Its main goal is to set the interest rate for the euro zone and keep inflation under control.
Euro membership will require ever-greater economic convergence among countries and force governments to structurally strengthen their policies and finances.
At celebrations marking the start of the use of euro cash on Monday, ECB chief Duisenberg paid tribute to the vision of many political leaders who had made the single currency possible.
The common currency represented "a formidable leap in the process of European integration," Duisenberg said.
He added that the arrival of euro cash would now act as catalyst for increased European integration in areas such as foreign policy, defense and welfare questions.
A Tunisian daily newspaper, Le Quotidien, praised Europeans for "having transcended their contradictions, national selfishness, sources of violence, conflict and division" by adopting the euro which, the paper said, "has played an eminently federating role."
The paper pointed out that adoption of the euro has led Europeans to strengthen their positioning on the global chessboard, where competition is based on united blocs and groups.
However, it lamented the fact that while blocs are being created from the Far East to the American continent and Europe, Arab countries remain despairingly disunited in the light of the strong trends emerging at the start of this century.
The 12 countries that have adopted the euro celebrated its birth Monday. At the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, officials lit a huge blue euro symbol.
Duisenberg said the launch represented the dawn of a new era, and he urged the three EU states that have chosen to keep out of the euro - Denmark, Sweden, and the UK - to "come and join us".
|
