Europe makes switch to euro
At the stroke of midnight, 12 European countries will bid adieu to their old national currencies in what is considered the largest monetary conversion in history. By embracing the euro, they will share a single currency that will make it easy to compare prices, eliminate the need for currency exchanges for travelers and serve as a symbol of political unity in Europe. Britain, Sweden and Denmark have opted out of the initial launch, but the currency will be accepted in some British shops and will play a large role in world trade.
To ease the changeover, the new euro notes and coins will circulate with the old currencies for varying periods. Customers will be able to pay in their old currency and receive change in euros. Within two months of E-Day, as Tuesday is being called, 300 million Europeans will be using only the euro.
"I don't give a hoot about the lira. I look forward to the euro. Europe should have been united centuries ago," says Salvatore Monteforte, owner of Dimeglio's, a small grocery near the Pantheon here in Rome. Monteforte has already added another drawer to his cash register to accommodate euros and has trained his staff to convert the old currency to the new.
Others are not so sanguine. Newspapers predict rushes on automated teller machines, which begin dispensing euros Tuesday, of long lines at groceries and small businesses, and of general confusion in the first two weeks of the changeover. Robbers in Italy have already made off with 1 million euros — about $900,000 — in bank heists in Milan and Bologna, and bandits in Germany stole 1.2 million euros from an armored car. In France, bank employees are threatening to derail the changeover by striking on Wednesday.
The euro has been weak against the dollar since its January 1999 launch, falling from about $1.17 to 88 cents now.
Here in Italy, the greatest fear is an increase in prices as companies, services and other organizations take advantage of the switch to "round up" prices. One of the biggest culprits: the Vatican. The cost of saying a mass for the dead will be rounded off to 10 euros, up from 15,000 lira, or 7.75 euros. Tourists will pay a flat 10 euros for entrance to Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel — previously tickets cost 18,000 lira, less than 9 euros.
"We are seeing bad behaviors by companies who don't have competitors," says Giustino Trincia, one of the directors of Cittadinanzattiva, a consumers group. Also being rounded up are the fees for public services such as transportation.
For the most part, officials predict few serious hitches. "Some ATMs won't work, and small merchants are perhaps not ready yet, but there is no reason to panic," says Giancarlo del Bufalo, secretary general of the Euro Committee in Italy. "Before the end of January, the lira will be mostly gone."
Originally published December 31, 2001.
