Cyprus & the Euro

Cyprus adopted the Euro, giving up its national currency (the Cyprus Pound), on 01 January 2008. At the same time, it became a member of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) which is based on the conduct of a single monetary policy primarily focused on maintaining price stability.

The Euro

The euro was first introduced as the single currency on 01 January 2002 and has already been adopted by 15 member states: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain. The euro has also been adopted by Monaco, San Marino, as well as the Vatican City. Three of the EU member states - Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom - still use their national currencies.

The euro symbol � is inspired by the Greek letter epsilon pointing back to the cradle of European civilisation and the first letter of Europe, crossed by two parallel lines to indicate the stability of the euro. The early definition of a distinctive symbol reflects the vocation of the euro to become one of the world's major currencies. The official international abbreviation is EUR.

For more information on the euro and the advantages it offers, see the website of the European Central Bank at www.euro.ecb.int.

Cyprus

On its accession to the EU as a member state, Cyprus accepted the obligation to join the euro area once it meets the "Maastricht convergence criteria" laid down in the EC Treaty. This applies to all ten new member states which entered the EU on 01 May 2004.

Slovenia adopted the euro on 01 January 2007. Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania will endeavour to join the euro at a later point. Slovakia aims to adopt the euro on 01 January 2009, the Czech Republic and Hungary on 01 January 2010. Poland has no target date for the time being.

In preparation, Cyprus entered the second phase of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-II) on 02 May 2005 and hence observes a central rate of 0.585274 and standard fluctuation margins of �15% vis-a-vis the euro.

Successful entry in the euro area implies not only compliance with Treaty requirements, but also carefully planned and extensive practical preparations involving the public and private sectors, as well as the public at large.

The government of Cyprus has adopted a national changeover plan, and also a communication strategy under which a comprehensive communication campaign aimed at enabling the public to switch over to the euro with complete confidence was launched on 31 May 2006.

A partnership agreement between the Commission and Cyprus was signed in May 2006, ensuring that optimal use is made of the island's own communication capacities. The Commission is working closely with the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Cyprus, and also the European Central Bank, in defining and implementing the communication strategy and linking it with other activities.

Euro Bank Notes & Coins

The designs of the euro bank notes are the same throughout the euro area and feature windows and gateways (on the front) and bridges (on the reverse) from different periods in Europe's architectural history.

There are seven different denominations in the current euro bank note series, ranging from the �5 to the �500 note.

The "common side" of the bi-colour coins (1 and 2 euro) and the Nordic gold coins (10, 20 and 50 cent) currently represents the EU before it was enlarged and only depicts 15 of the 25 member states. It has been decided that a modified design depicting a geographical representation of Europe should be ready in time for new euro-area entrants to strike and issue their euro coins with the new common side from 2007.

The designs of the "national sides" of coins are selected by each individual member state. In view of the increasing number of national sides, it has been decided that future national sides should bear a clear indication of the issuing country. Moreover, the denomination of the coin and the name of the currency (euro) should not be repeated on the national side unless a different alphabet is used, since both elements appear on the common side. Existing design features for the national side (twelve stars surrounding the design and the presence of a year mark) will continue to be used.

There are 3 national sides on the euro coins that are minted by the Cyprus - one for the small denominations (1, 2 & 5 cent), one for the medium denominations (10, 20 & 50 cent), and one for the high denominations (�1 & �2). The themes for the 3 sides are drawn from three aspects characterising the country: nature, history and civilisation.

On the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins, the national side will depict the mouflon, as the most characteristic species of Cyprus� wild life.

On the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins, the national side will depict the ancient ship of Kyrenia, representing the island�s relationship with trade, shipping and the sea, throughout Cyprus history.

On the �1 and �2 coins, the national side will depict the idol from Pomos, a cross-shaped idol from the chalcolithic period (3000 B.C.) which is a characteristic example of Cypriot prehistoric art and represents the heritage and civilisation of a country endowed with a history of over 10.000 years.

The Cyprus national website on the euro: www.euro.cy

[Article derived from the EU Representative in Cyprus]