The European Union and the Eurozone (etc.)

The main purpose of this page is to keep track of those countries that are in the EU and the Eurozone, and those that aren't ... and those (such as the United Kingdom was until quite recently) that are in one but not the other.

But you can also use it to check the currencies of the countries that don't currently use the euro, and the former currencies of those that do.

At the bottom of this page we look at a couple of related organisations – hence the 'etc.' in the title!

EU and Eurozone

The Eurozone consists of those members of the EU that have adopted the Euro as their sole legal tender.

On 1 January 2015, Lithuania became the 19th member of the Eurozone.

Country	Capital	Joined EU	Previous currency	Joined Eurozone
Austria	Vienna	1995	shilling	1999
Belgium	Brussels	1952	franc	1999
Cyprus	Nicosia	2004	pound	2008
Estonia	Tallin	2004	kroon	2011
Finland	Helsinki	1995	markka or Finnmark	1999
France	Paris	1952	franc	1999
Germany	Berlin	1952	mark	1999
Greece	Athens	1981	drachma	2001
Ireland (Republic of)	Dublin	1973	punt	1999
Italy	Rome	1952	lira	1999
Latvia	Riga	2004	lats	2014
Lithuania	Vilnius	2004	litas	2015
Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1952	franc	1999
Malta	Valletta	2004	lira	2008
Netherlands	The Hague	1952	gulden or guilder	1999
Portugal	Lisbon	1986	escudo	1999
Slovakia	Bratislava	2004	koruna	2009
Slovenia	Ljubljana	2004	tolar	2007
Spain	Madrid	1986	peseta	1999

Non–EU countries that use the Euro

The following six countries are not members of the EU (and therefore cannot be members of the Eurozone) but have adopted the euro:

Country	Capital	Previous currency	Used the Euro since
Andorra	Andorra la Vella	French franc, peseta	1999
Kosovo	Pristina	German mark	2002
Monaco	Monte Carlo	Monegasque franc	2002
Montenegro	Podgorica	German mark	2002
San Marino	San Marino	Sammarinese lira	1999
Vatican City	Vatican City	Vatican lira	1999

EU countries that don't use the Euro

The following nine countries are members of the EU but have not (yet) adopted the euro:

Country	Capital	Joined EU	Currency	Notes
Bulgaria	Sofia	2007	lev	no clear adoption plans (Jan 2016)
Croatia	Zagreb	2013	kuna	expected to adopt the euro around 2016
Czech Republic	Prague	2004	koruna	plans to adopt the euro in 2010 were suspended indefinitely in 2005
Denmark	Copenhagen	1973	krone	has a formal opt–out
Hungary	Budapest	2004	forint	unlikely to adopt the euro before "some time in the 2020s"
Poland	Warsaw	2004	zloty	unlikely to adopt the euro before 2019, if at all
Romania	Bucharest	2007	leu	expected to adopt the euro around 2020
Sweden	Stockholm	1995	krona	exploiting a loophole to avoid adopting the euro

Other European countries

The following sixteen European countries are not members of the EU and have not (yet) adopted the euro:

Country	Capital	Currency
Albania	Tirana	lek
Armenia	Yerevan	dram
Azerbaijan	Baku	manat
Belarus	Minsk	Belarusian ruble
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sarajevo	Convertible mark
FYR Macedonia	Skopje	denar
Georgia	Tbilisi	lari
Iceland	Reykjavik	krona
Liechtenstein	Vaduz	Swiss franc
Moldova	Chisinau	leu
Norway	Oslo	krone
Russia	Moscow	rouble (1 rouble = 100 kopecks)
Serbia	Belgrade	dinar
Switzerland	Berne	franc
Ukraine	Kiev	hryvnia
United Kingdom	London	pound (sterling)

European Free Trade Area (EFTA)

The EFTA was established on 3 May 1960 as an alternative trade organisation for European states that were either unable or unwilling to join the European Economic Community (EEC – now the EU).

The UK was a founder member of EFTA, but left in 1973 on joining the EEC.

EFTA currently (pending the resolution of issues surrounding Brexit) has four members:

European Economic Area (EEA)

The EEA was established in 1994 and is open to countries that are members of either the EU or EFTA.

Number of EEA members		30
EFTA member that is not a member of EEA		Switzerland
The latest EU member – awaiting ratification of its application for EEA membership		Croatia

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