Définition
The eurozone (or Economic and Monetary Union- EMU) is the geographic area made up of the 19 countries of the European Union that have adopted the euro as the single currency. Several criteria are required to join the eurozone : these are the convergence criteria in the Maastricht Treaty.
The eurozone was created in 1999 by 11 of the 15 countries that were then in the EU, joined by Greece in 2001, Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014 and Lithuania in 2015.
Sweden and Denmark decided in referendums not to adopt the euro for the moment; the United Kingdom is not part of the single currency.
Remarque
The 19 Member States of the Euro Zone are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.