The euro (or EUR) entered circulation on January 1, 2002 and is the official currency of some, but not all European Union countries. The seventeen countries that use the euro are known as the eurozone: Austria, Belgium, Cypress, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. Since 2009, the euro has been making headlines because of the European debt crisis.
