I Am the Euro!
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GROUP THE EURO 7 8 I am the Euro! Euro is like Ali B. A boy from the street. Produced by This story is part of the European Story Suitcase. More information? www.eu.nlonderwijs ©European Union GROUP THE EURO 7 8 Hey, man! How’s it going? Good to see you again. Euro here. Just rolling around. I’m the numero uno in Europe. Look, it says so in the middle of my face. Eén, uno, one and only, un, eins! That’s me. It’s cool that you’re here. Cool that I’m here. You know what I am. Money. You’ve got to keep it moving. I’ve not been around for long. Er... Let me think... Erm, I’ve been around since 1 January 2002. Man, it took them a long time to decide what to call me. See, BEFORE me every country had its own money. For example: The Netherlands had the guilder. The name means it was gold but there was nothing golden about it and it wasn’t even silver. A nickel coin. Nice little thing, but it had to be retired. Just like the German mark. And erm... The French franc. The Belgian franc. The escudo and the peseta and the lira... Oh, man, it was complicated back then! I’ve heard stories about it! People would stop at the border and have to exchange their money. They would get so many marks for so many guilders. And when they went back they got fewer guilders for those marks. It all took a whole lot of time. This story is part of the European Story Suitcase More information? www.eu.nlonderwijs Page 1 uroe o GROUP THE EURO 7 8 Say you were in Paris. You had to first consider how much that ice cream was in Dutch dimes and you’d think: ‘That’s EXPENSIVE, or that’s CHEAP’. And then you’d buy no ice cream or you’d buy two. Complicated, dude! So, then I came along. They thought: we’ll call him ECU. It’s not a bad name. In French it means ‘a shield’, which is also round. Nice, eh? But the Germans were against that... They thought that they were calling me A COW. They didn’t like that. Then there was a Belgian man, Germain Pirlot and he said: Why don’t you simply call it the euro? Duh! They should have thought of that first! Simple! So, then I came about. And my brother, the Two Euro and now I’ve got a load of other brothers, like the Euro Cent, the Two Euro Cent, the Five Euro Cent, the Ten, the Twenty, the Fifty... And one or two banknotes. It’s really cool, you know... These coins – take a look – they all look the same on the front. But on the back. Ta-da! Every country has its own reverse side. It’s fun to collect them. Some of them are IMPOSSIBLE to find. You should try to find the Finnish euro cent. It’s really hard to find! It’s almost impossible to find! Well done if you do happen to come across one. So, yeah, every country has the euro. Nope, that’s not quite true. They don’t want it in the United Kingdom or in Denmark. I sure get around, though. This story is part of the European Story Suitcase More information? www.eu.nlonderwijs Page 2 uroe o GROUP THE EURO 7 8 You see, a coin from before... A guilder, for example. Where did that ever go? It was exchanged at the border. It never stepped foot abroad. But me, I’m everywhere, man. Everywhere, everywhere. Wherever people travel, I go, too. I go with them. And then in Spain something is paid for with me. By a Dutchman. And that Spaniard who travels to Italy. And pays for something there, too. With me. And then that Italian goes to Cyprus. And the Cypriot goes to Malta. And the Maltese to Slovenia. And the Slovenian to Estonia. And then the Estonian comes to the Netherlands... And I’m home again. In the past... I’m not such an expert, okay, but I’ve heard it said... coins were also very dependent on the exchange rates. How exactly did that work? Well, for example, the German mark was worth more than the Dutch guilder. And then things went very well with the economy in Germany. And a bit less well with us here. And then the mark became even more valuable. So, then you got 4 marks for your 5 guilder. And after that only three and a half marks. So, if you went abroad and you were unlucky... Everything could become more expensive just like that. That can’t happen these days... Because we all have the euro. There’s still stuff going on with these exchange rates but not within the countries that have the euro. You see, the euro here in the Netherlands has exactly the same value as the euro in Spain or Slovenia. And if you exchange the euro into Danish kroner, then you’ll get the same amount of kroner in the Netherlands and Spain. It’s quite complicated to understand. This story is part of the European Story Suitcase More information? www.eu.nlonderwijs Page 3 uroe o GROUP THE EURO 7 8 But look, a coin is hard. Look at me. I’m hard. You can’t easily break me in two. And I’m the same everywhere. Whether I’m here or there. Wherever you pay with me I’m worth the same. Which makes sense, because I am me and I am nothing else. Yes, I’ve given that some thought! If someone were to ask you to name the 12 countries that introduced the euro as legal tender on 1 January 2002... I know a handy way for you to remember them. Ging Flaf Bips. Ging Flaf Bips, yes. These are the first letters of those 12 countries. Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Greece, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. But yeah, that memory aid could only work up to 2007 because after that Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia and Estonia also joined. Except that now we need another one because Latvia and Lithuania have joined and Romania will follow suit in 2019. So, memory aids... Yep, we’re going through them like crazy! Hey, do you know what’s great? Even in countries where they have not adopted the euro, you can often pay with me. No kidding: I’m talking about Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, French Guiana and the Azores and Madeira and the Canary Islands... All just the euro! Why? Because these are overseas territories of France, Spain and Portugal. Basically, I’m everywhere! This story is part of the European Story Suitcase More information? www.eu.nlonderwijs Page 4 uroe o GROUP THE EURO 7 8 By the way, the euro banknotes... These don’t differ from one country to the next. No, these are the same everywhere. Notes for five and ten euros. Then one for twenty and one for fifty. The notes above them you don’t see so often. But they exist. A green one, that’s 100 euros. A yellow one, that’s 200 euros. And then there is even a purple 500 euros one. All these notes feature images of buildings. That was a tricky issue, you know. Obviously all the countries wanted to have THEIR building on that note. Then they decided simply to have FICTITIOUS buildings on them. Problem solved. The funny thing is though, in the new district of Het Land in Spijkenisse bridges needed to be built over the landscaped ditches. So, they built them to match the examples of bridges on these banknotes. They are called the euro bridges. Nobody is upset about it. Boys and girls, I’ve been here way too long. A coin shouldn’t stand around in front of the class. If I had been square, then maybe I could have hung around. But like my old father – a florin from the old days – used to say: ‘You’ve got to keep money moving!’ So, that’s what I’m going to do right now. We’ll see each other again. In Spain or in Germany! Who knows. See you then! This story is part of the European Story Suitcase More information? www.eu.nlonderwijs Page 5 uroe o GROUP THE EURO 7 EURO 8 Many countries in the EU use the same currency: the Euro. This wasn’t always so. Each country used to have its own currency. And because of exchange rates these currencies did not always have the same value. Very unpractical when going on holiday abroad and also for trade. That’s why it’s more practical that we now all use the euro as currency. Now answer the following questions: 1. When did we start using the euro as our 5. What is the euro area? currency in the Netherlands? ££the EU Member States that do not use the ££1 January 2002 euro ££1 January 2004 ££the countries around the EU ££1 January 2008 ££the EU Member States that have introduced the euro 2. What was our currency before then? ££the mark 6. Which EU Member States do not belong to the euro area? ££the pound ££the guilder ££Germany and France ££Belgium and the Netherlands 3. Do all euro coins from every country look ££the United Kingdom and Denmark the same? ££yes 7. Is the euro worth the same in all countries? ££yes, on one side ££no ££no ££it is worth more abroad ££yes 4.