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CRS-2 1 Eleven members — Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal — adopted a single European currency, the euro, on January 1, 1999; Greece joined in 2001. The participating countries have a common central bank and a common monetary policy. Banks and many businesses began using the euro as a unit of account in 1999; euro notes and coins replaced national currencies on January 1, 2002. Institutions The European Union is a treaty-based, institutional framework that defines and manages economic and political cooperation among its 25 member states.