Celebrating 10 years of the Euro

Finance ministers, economists and policy makers from the European Union member countries have attended the Brussels Economic Forum. The two-day forum is to celebrate ten years of the European Monetary Union and the Euro.

Ten years of the European Monetary Union and the Euro  was celebrated. (Photo: CCTV.com)

In his opening speech to the forum Thursday, the Euro Group President gave his assessment of the Economic and Monetary Union and the challenges the union will face.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of Eurogroup, said, "It's obvious that the euro has been a success. It was not easy to come to a merger of 15 national currencies into one single currency. This single currency has developed into the second largest currency reserve area. This single currency is protecting us against external shocks."

The Forum comes at a time when EU nations are still reluctant to give up their individual seats at major global economic talks in favor of a EU seat.

Ten years of the European Monetary Union and the Euro was celebrated. (Photo: CCTV.com)

The European Commission is pushing for the 15 Euro nations to take a joint Euro seat at key economic institutions such as the G-Seven.

In 1998, EU leaders named the eleven countries that would merge their currencies into the single unit, the Euro, but it took 4 years for the countries to physically adopt the Euro.

Since 2002, other nations have joined the group and there are now 15 countries in the Euro zone.