International status and usage of the euro

 ( Euro ) 

The first OCTs to adopt the euro through a monetary agreement were the French overseas territories of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, located off the coast of Canada, and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. They both adopted the euro on 1 January 1999 when the currency was first introduced at the electronic level. Mayotte subsequently held a referendum in 2009 in which it decided to become an integral part of France. Its status was changed from an OCT to an OMR, where EU laws apply without separate agreements, on 1 January 2014, which rendered the previous monetary agreement unnecessary.

On 22 February 2007, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin were politically separated from the French Outermost region (OMR) Guadeloupe to form two new French overseas collectivities. This caused their status in the EU to briefly enter legal limbo, until ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon reaffirmed that both territories were part of the EU. The euro continued to be used in both territories throughout this period without incident. When Saint Barthélemy subsequently became an overseas territory of the European Union on 1 January 2012, changing its status to an OCT, the territory had to sign a monetary agreement to continue using the euro.

With the adoption of the euro by Cyprus on 1 January 2008, the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which had previously used the Cypriot pound, also decided to adopt the euro. The base areas are an overseas territory of the United Kingdom and under military jurisdiction. Even when the UK was an EU member state, the base areas were not considered part of the EU. The euro was instead adopted to align the base areas with the laws and currency of the Republic of Cyprus.

Due to concerns that Serbia could use the dinar to destabilise Kosovo and Montenegro (the latter was in a political union with Serbia until 2006), both received Western help in adopting and using the mark (though there was no restriction on the use of the dinar or any other currency). They switched to the euro when the mark was replaced. In North Kosovo, mainly populated by the Serbian minority, the Serbian dinar, which replaced the Yugoslav dinar, continues to be used despite its lack of recognition or use elsewhere in Kosovo.

The use of the euro in Montenegro and Kosovo has helped stabilise their economies, and for this reason the adoption of the euro by small states has been encouraged by former Finance Commissioner Joaquín Almunia. Former European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet stated that the ECB – which does not grant representation to those who unilaterally adopt the euro – neither supports nor deters those wishing to use the currency.

Also, a large number of petrol stations and motorway service areas in European countries outside the eurozone accept euros, and Poland (as well as non-EU members Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia) allow payment of highway tolls in euros.

The euro is explicitly included in some laws in non-eurozone countries, including EEA countries, based on . The laws, for example in money laundering, include specific euro amounts above which certain rules apply.

In some areas of New Caledonia and French Polynesia, both non-EU territories of an EU member state (France), euro payments can be accepted, alongside the territorial CFP Franc.

Presently, the TRNC government has declared the Turkish lira to be its legal tender. The euro (along with other major currencies, such as the U.S. dollar and British pound) can be used to pay for goods and services in many shops associated with or situated near tourist hotspots, as well as some major supermarkets. However, the exchange rate used by these businesses may not always reflect the true value of the currencies involved. Cypriot euro coins, using both Greek language and Turkish language languages, have been designed to avoid any bias towards any particular area of the island, in keeping with both Greek and Turkish being the official languages of the Republic of Cyprus. The Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus 1960 date accessed 1 Jan 2014 p.2 Some in northern Cyprus have called for the unilateral adoption of the euro.

Since 2007, Iran has asked all petroleum customers to pay in non-U.S. dollar currency in response to American sanctions. This has resulted in the Iranian oil bourse trading in several currencies, predominantly the euro for European trade, and either the yen or euros for sales in Asia.

In 2018, in response to U.S. sanctions, the Venezuelan Minister of Industries and National Production Tareck El Aissami announced that all foreign exchange government auctions will no longer be quoted in U.S. dollars and would use euros, Chinese yuan and other hard currencies instead. El Aissami said the government would open bank accounts in Europe and Asia as potential workarounds to financial sanctions. In addition, Venezuela's banking sector will now be able to participate in currency auctions three times a week, adding that the government would sell some 2 billion euros amid a rebound in oil prices.

As part of ERM II, the Bulgarian lev has a fluctuation band of ±15%. The Danish krone, however, has committed to a tighter fluctuation band of ±2.25%.

Of the rest of the listed currencies, the Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark maintains a fixed exchange rate through the currency board system; the Central African CFA franc, the West African CFA franc, the CFP franc, the Cape Verdean escudo, the Comorian franc, and the São Tomé and Príncipe dobra maintain a conventional fixed exchange rate; the Macedonian denar uses a stabilized arrangement; and the Moroccan dirham is pegged to the euro through a basket of currencies. Other countries that, as of December 2023, have exchange rate regimes linked to the euro are Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Botswana, Tunisia, Samoa, Fiji, Libya, Kuwait, Syria, China and Vanuatu.

Since 2005, stamps issued by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta have been denominated in euros, although the Order's official currency remains the Maltese scudo. The Maltese scudo itself is pegged to the euro and is only recognised as legal tender within the Order.

In 2011, the Swiss franc was rapidly appreciating against the euro, harming its exports to the eurozone. In response, Switzerland implemented a cap to the Swiss franc's value. This was not so much a peg, as they were merely limiting its highest value and not its lowest. In 2015, Switzerland announced that it was going to scrap its currency peg to the euro. Why Switzerland Scrapped the Euro

The possibility of the euro becoming the first international reserve currency was widely discussed before 2009. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan gave his opinion in September 2007 that the euro could indeed replace the U.S. dollar as the world's primary reserve currency. He said it is "absolutely conceivable that the euro will replace the dollar as reserve currency, or will be traded as an equally important reserve currency."

As of 2021, however, the euro has not displaced the U.S. dollar as primary reserve currency due to the European debt crisis. The euro's stability and future existence was doubted and its share of global reserves fell to 19% by year-end 2015 (compared to 66% for the U.S. dollar). As of year-end 2020, these figures stand at 21% for the euro and 59% for the U.S. dollar.

• Dollarisation
• International use of the U.S. dollar
• Internationalization of the renminbi
• Central banks and currencies of Africa
• Central banks and currencies of the Caribbean
• Reserve currency

• ECB latest press release on central rates and bands for ERM II