Civil servants and financial bodies in European capital cities get ready launch to replace national currencies with the Euro.
The officials overseeing Ireland's preparations for the new European currency, the Euro, are back at work as there are just two days until 300 million Europeans say goodbye to their national currencies.
The EC was established under the Treaty of Rome in 1957 to heal divisions in Europe following World War II. Even then, one of the founding fathers Jean Monnet was dreaming about a single currency. When Ireland, Britain and Denmark joined the European Union in 1973 there were discussions about coordinating monetary and economic policies. Ambitions for economic unity were shaken by the oil crisis and recession in the 1970s.
European Commission President Jacques Delors revived the idea of a monetary union in the 1980s. He argued that a single currency was a logical development of a European single market without borders. Another French President, François Mitterrand, also played a key part in the move to monetary union. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, François Mitterrand argued that the best way to prevent a reunited Germany from becoming too powerful was to make it part of a united Europe with a single currency.
Prime Minister John Major had his doubts about a single currency and the UK will remain outside of the Eurozone when eleven countries embark on one of the most momentous events of the century.
From 1 January 1999, Ireland's exchange rate with the other participants will be fixed and those countries will share a common interest rate. Euro notes and coins will not go into circulation until 2002.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 29 December 1998. The reporter is Tommie Gorman.
