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Although all EU countries are part of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), 19 of them have replaced their national currencies with the single currency the euro. These EU countries form the euro area, also known as the eurozone.

All EU Member States, except Denmark, are required to adopt the euro and join the euro area. To do this they must meet certain conditions known as 'convergence criteria'.

Euro banknotes and coins were introduced in Spain on 1 January 2002, after a transitional period of three years when the euro was the official currency but only existed as 'book money'. The dual circulation period,when both the Spanish peseta and the euro had legal tender status, ended on 28 February 2002.

The next enlargements were to states which joined the EU in 2004, and then joined the eurozone on 1 January in the mentioned year: Slovenia (2007), Cyprus (2008), Malta (2008), Slovakia (2009), Estonia (2011), Latvia (2014), and Lithuania (2015).

After a decade of preparations, the euro was launched on 1 January 1999: for the first three years it was an 'invisible' currency, only used for accounting purposes and electronic payments. Coins and banknotes were launched on 1 January 2002, and in 12 EU countries the biggest cash changeover in history took place.

Introducing the Euro: The Euro is the new 'single currency' of the European Monetary Union, adopted on January 1, 1999 by 11 Member States. Greece became the 12th Member state to adopt the Euro on January 1, 2001. On January 1, 2002, these 12 countries officially introduced the Euro banknotes and coins as legal tender.

Peseta, former monetary unit of Spain. The peseta ceased to be legal tender in 2002, when the euro, the monetary unit of the European Union, was adopted as the country's sole monetary unit.

There are currently nine countries which are in the EU but do not use the euro (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and the UK).

While most EU member nations agreed to adopt the euro, a few, like the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden (among others), have decided to stick with their own legacy currencies.Most EU nations that have avoided the eurozone do so to maintain economic independence.

A collapsed euro would likely compromise the Schengen Agreement, which allows free movement of people, goods, services, and capital. Each member country would need to reintroduce its national currency and the appropriate exchange rate for global trade.