European Currency Unit opportunity for foreign diversification without reliance on the currency of a single country. The ECU was conceived on 13 March 1979 as an internal accounting unit. It had the ISO 4217 currency code XEU. On 1 January 1999, the euro (with the code EUR and symbol €) replaced the ECU, at the value €1 = 1 ECU. Unlike the ECU, the euro is a real currency, although not all member states participate (for details on euro membership see Eurozone). Two of the countries in the ECU basket of currencies, UK and Denmark, did not join the eurozone, and a third,
International status and usage of the euro Cypriot pound, also decided to adopt the euro. The base areas are an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, an EU member state which itself does not use the euro, but these bases are outside of the EU and under military jurisdiction. Their laws and currency have been aligned with those of the Republic of Cyprus, leading to the euro's adoption in the two areas. Montenegro and Kosovo have also used the euro since its launch, as they previously used the German mark rather than the Yugoslav dinar. Unlike the states above, they do not have a formal agreement with