The European Central Bank is celebrating 20th anniversary of euro currency. The event was marked at midnight with a light display in blue and yellow, the colours of the EU, projected on its skyscraper headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.
Euro was launched on 1st January 1999 only for electronic payments and accounting purposes. The coins and currencies were launched only after three years on 1st January 2002.
At first euro was adopted by 11 member states such as Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Today 19 of the 27 member states use euro as their currencies.