The 27 member European Union (EU) welcomed Cyprus and Malta adopting euros as their official currency. The adoption of the currency was marked by outdoor celebrations in both the countries. With the addition of Malta and Cyprus the EU has 15 states which use euros as their currency.
EU’s primary goal of achieving single currency status for euro among the member states gets a boost through this adoption. Experts point out that for opening up the respective countries’ prospects in the huge European market could be the reason for the quick adoption of the euros by these two nations who are part of EU only since 2004. Slovenia is the first country to adopt euro among the 12 nations which joined EU in 2004 by fulfilling the required criteria and paved way for others to follow suit.
Current members of the EU which use euro as their state currency besides the newcomers include Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Greece. At the moment, only Greek speaking southern part of Cyprus would be using euros. The government in the north is only recognized by Turkey, still a candidate to EU and will not join the Euro zone. As part of any change, joining the mainstream euro currency is not without any skepticism.
But both the governments of Malta and Cyprus have taken numerous steps to counter price escalation on essential commodities. Though the process of assimilation to euros is going to be a long one, the nations expect the GDP would substantially improve from the present share of 0.3 % in the EU.