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The European Currency Unit (French: Unité de compte européenne, Spanish: Unidad Monetaria Europea, German: Europäische Währungseinheit ; ₠ , ECU, or XEU) was a unit of account used by the European Economic Community and composed of a basket of member country currencies.
The first écu, issued by Louis IX of France, in 1266.. The term écu (French pronunciation:) may refer to one of several French coins. [1] The first écu was a gold coin (the écu d'or) minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266.
The European Currency Unit was an accounting unit used by the EU, based on the currencies of the member states; it was not a currency in its own right. They could not be set earlier, because the ECU depended on the closing exchange rate of the non-euro currencies (principally pound sterling) that day.
The European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) is a system introduced by the European Economic Community on 1 January 1999 alongside the introduction of a single currency, the euro (replacing ERM 1 and the euro's predecessor, the ECU) as part of the European Monetary System (EMS), to reduce exchange rate variability and achieve monetary stability in Europe.
The ECU was the official monetary unit of the EMS, but it was purely a composite accounting unit, not a real currency. The ECU's value was based on the weighted average of a basket of 12 European currencies; the Austrian schilling, Belgian franc, German mark, Spanish peseta, French franc, Finnish markka, Greek drachma, Irish pound, Italian lira ...
Initially, the euro served as an accounting unit for international transactions, known as the ECU, before evolving into a common currency. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] The accelerated introduction of the euro was partly influenced by concerns that German reunification might disrupt the balance within the European Union.
European Currency Unit and 22 national currencies which were replaced by the euro: . Austrian schilling; Belgian franc; Croatian kuna; Cypriot pound; Dutch guilder; Estonian kroon ...
All de facto present currencies in Europe, and an incomplete list of the preceding currency, are listed here. In Europe, the most commonly used currency is the euro (used by 26 countries); any country entering the European Union (EU) is expected to join the eurozone [ 1 ] when they meet the five convergence criteria. [ 2 ]