How the Euro Works
On 29 October 2026 Christine Lagarde said she will step down as President of the European Central Bank on 7 February 2027. This film explains the currency she leaves behind: how the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 planned a single currency and set the entrance test, how the euro was born as book money in 1999 and as notes and coins in 2002, how it grew from eleven countries to twenty-one, how the ECB sets one interest rate and how its Governing Council votes, why one rate can strain countries in different situations, how the debt crisis of 2010 to 2012 was fought, how the euro became the world's second reserve currency, and how the next president will be chosen.
One money, twenty-one countries
How the euro was built, and how it works.
Many moneys
Francs, marks, lira and a plan.
Birth of the euro
First in accounts, then in pockets.
The circle widens
Nine more countries in nineteen years.
One interest rate
One bank system, one target.
One size for all
What a country gives up.
A world currency
Second, and still far behind.
Who leads next
One seat, twenty-one votes.
Read the full story as text · อ่านภาษาไทย
This interactive 3D film needs JavaScript. PlanetPast home