Federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103) establishes the public holidays listed in these pages for Federal employees. Please note that most Federal employees work on a Monday through Friday schedule.
The name euro was officially adopted on 16 December 1995. The euro was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999, replacing the former European Currency Unit (ECU) at a ratio of 1:1 (US$1.1743).he share of the euro as a reserve currency has increased from 18% in 1999 to 27% in 2008. Over this period the share of the U.S. dollar fell from 71% to 64% and the Yen fell from 6.4% to 3.3%.
On January 1, 2009, Slovakia started using the euro. Estonia began using the euro on January 1, 2011. Latvia began using the euro as its currency on January 1, 2014. Lithuania is expected to join the Eurozone in the next few years and thus become a new country using the euro. Only 18 of the 27 members of the European Union (EU) are part of the Eurozone, the name for the collection of EU countries that utilize the euro.