Marking the twentieth anniversary of the Euro’s electronic launch in 1999, this exhibit covers the thirty year process of designing and implementing a single currency system in the European Union. The exhibit includes relevant archival documents and visual materials preserved by the HAEU and by EU Institutions collaborating in this project. Beginning with the commitment towards monetary union established during the 1969 summit at The Hague, the exhibit traces the political debates on the project and the milestone reports of Pierre Werner and Jacques Delors, as well as the process of implementing a design and informing the European public.
While a number of controversies threatened the single currency project, what was important was getting public support for the developing currency, so informing the public of the progress being made was of paramount importance. It was therefore essential that the design of the banknotes and coins was generally accepted by the public. In February 1996, the European Monetary Institute held a competition to determine the design of the Euro banknotes. The 44 designs were reviewed by a panel of experts and members of the public against three criteria: the designs must be acceptable to the public, have clear themes, and show artistic merit. The 2002 launch of the Euro banknotes marked the conclusion of European Monetary Institute’s most visible work.
Delors Report press report, 1987 (HAEU, TPS 192)
Portrait of Jacques Delors, unknown author (HAEU, JP 214)
Interview with Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, 1998-2000 (HAEU, TPS 791).
‘What’s Next for the European Union – A Constitution or a Foreign Policy?’, Lord Howe of Aberavon, 1996 (HAEU, TPS 253)
‘What does Delors think he’s doing?’, Michael Binyon, The Times (HAEU, TPS 365)
‘Commission Communication on the Information Strategy for Euro’, 1996-1998 (HAEU, CCRE 325).
‘EMU’s New Horizons’, Peter Martin, Financial Times, 1997 (HAEU, CCRE 341)
Supervised by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, the Euro was adopted by 12 countries representing over 300 million citizens with another 7 members joining in the following decade. Almost immediately, the Euro became the second most widely used currency in the world.
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