At midnight, the 1er January 2002, between champagne and New Year’s Eve celebrations, people line up in front of the vending machines. After centuries of using the franc, France – along with eleven other countries – is switching to the euro. We rush to touch the tickets for the first time, aware that a historic step has just been taken. Nicole Fontaine, then President of the European Parliament, is solemn: “The fact that 300 million Europeans have the same currency in their pockets will undoubtedly reinforce the feeling that we belong to the same community. This feeling will be very strong for European citizenship. »
The single currency had officially been launched three years earlier, but only at the level of banking and international exchanges. In 2002, its reality arrives in the wallets. As of February 18, francs are no longer accepted in stores. Adieu Saint-Exupéry (50 francs), Cézanne (100 francs) or Pierre and Marie Curie (500 francs)… Make way for imaginary bridges, windows and doors of European denominations, neutral symbols chosen by the fathers of the euro to avoid crumpling national sensitivities.
Twenty years later, the euro is extended to nineteen countries, for a population of 340 million inhabitants. Eight billion banknotes were in circulation in 2002, there are now 28 billion, half of which are in denominations of 50 euros. From 40 billion pieces, we went to 140 billion. Today, France shares the same currency with Germany, Spain, Italy or Belgium, of course, but also with the Baltic countries (accession between 2011 and 2015), Slovakia (2009) and Slovenia (2007).
“A real federal achievement”
What conclusions can we draw from this? For the Governor of the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau, it is clear: “It is a great European political success, both internally and internationally. The greatest success of the euro is the support of the citizens. It stands at 79% of Europeans in favor of the single currency, more than 80% in Germany, which was a very reluctant party twenty years ago. There are not many political and economic decisions or collective projects that bring together three quarters of the citizens. »
The pro domo plea of a temple guardian is of course not surprising, but most observers agree on the same observation. “The creators of the euro have succeeded in their bet, believes Théo Verdier, of the Jean Jaurès Foundation, a think tank that just published a report on the subject. We have a real federal acquis that will no longer be called into question. » As proof, he points to the opinion polls showing growing support for the single currency. In 2007, 47% of the inhabitants of the euro zone thought that the single currency was a good thing for their country. In October 2021, they were 69%, according to Eurobarometer, a biannual survey carried out by the European Commission.
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