2024-01-07 18:42:29
It’s the euro’s birthday. It has now been a quarter of a century since the currency replaced the guilder. What has 25 years of the euro brought us?
De euro werd officieel ingevoerd op 1 januari 1999. Hoewel er pas drie jaar later met euromunten en -biljetten werd betaald, waren de koersen van aandelen, obligaties en opties aan de beurs vanaf toen in euro’s. Dat maakte het makkelijker voor de financiële markten om aan de munt te wennen.
“De euro heeft de afgelopen 25 jaar goed overleefd”, zegt Ivo Arnold, hoogleraar monetaire economie aan de Erasmus School of Economics. “We hebben een eurocrisis, coronacrisis en inflatiegolf gehad, maar desondanks is er nog steeds veel steun voor de euro. En er zijn in de afgelopen jaren landen tot de muntunie toegetreden.”
In de afgelopen 25 jaar hebben acht nieuwe landen zich bij het eurogebied aangesloten, waardoor het aantal landen waar je met de euro kan betalen van twaalf naar twintig landen is gegaan. “En dat is een compliment waard”, vindt Arnold. “Toen de euro 25 jaar geleden werd ingevoerd, was het nog een behoorlijk wankele constructie.”
Ook Christine Lagarde, president van de Europese Centrale Bank (ECB), is blij dat we al een kwart eeuw betalen met de eenheidsmunt. Volgens de topvrouw is de euro voor Europa zelfs meer dan een munt. “De euro staat voor een verenigd Europa. Na 25 jaar weten we dat de euro werkt en dat hij Europa dichter bij elkaar heeft gebracht”, zei Lagarde vorig jaar.
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Shaky construction
Twelve countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Greece and Ireland, suddenly shared a currency. Yet much was still regulated by the individual countries. If a country got into trouble, the ECB might not help.
This was a major problem, especially during the banking crisis in 2008. Greece had large debts following the crisis. This had consequences for the entire eurozone. The European Commission and the ECB then jointly helped Greece.
Since then, more ways have emerged for the euro countries to help each other. For example, the EU has set up emergency funds to help countries that find themselves in a similar situation to Greece. This has come in handy for many countries during the corona crisis.
The currency is now quite stable, Arnold believes. “Yet there are still difficulties,” says the professor. “Not all countries still have their budgets in order. That is a problem, because if certain countries continue to incur debts, the entire monetary policy in the monetary union can be dominated by those debts. That makes it difficult for the ECB, for example, to control inflation.”
To prevent this, new budget rules were agreed just before Christmas. But they still have to prove themselves. “Hopefully that will lead to more discipline when it comes to budgets,” Arnold says.
The Euro has done the Netherlands no harm
The Netherlands has in any case benefited from the introduction of the euro. The euro was introduced, among other things, to make it easier to trade with other EU countries. Figures from the Dutch Bank (DNB) show that Benelux exports have even benefited most from the euro. Other countries, such as Ireland, Germany and France, have also benefited from the introduction of the currency.
“But not all countries benefit equally from the euro,” DNB President Klaas Knot said recently in an analysis. Exports from countries such as Greece and Italy actually fell compared to a scenario in which they had not been members of the euro, the central bank calculated.
Yet the transition to the euro has not been in vain for those countries either. Residents of all countries with the euro benefit from the small advantages of a single currency. For example, it has become easier and cheaper to move within the EU, travel to an EU country and transfer money to another country.
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