European Unit of Account European Unit of Account The European Unit of Account (EUA) was a unit of account used in the European Communities from 1975 to 1979, when it was replaced at parity by the European Currency Unit, in turn replaced at parity in 1999 by the euro. Initially it was used for Lomé Convention and European Investment Bank operations before being gradually introduced into other sectors of Community activity. The EUA was a basket of European currencies, originally designed to have the same value in mid-1974 as the IMF special drawing rights basket, both worth US$1.20635; they immediately moved apart in value.
20 euro note over 300 million people in Europe. For the first three years of its existence it was an invisible currency, only used in accountancy. Euro cash was not introduced until 1 January 2002, when it replaced the national banknotes and coins of the countries in eurozone 12, such as the Belgian franc and the Greek drachma. Slovenia joined the Eurozone in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014, and Lithuania in 2015. The changeover period during which the former currencies' notes and coins were exchanged for those of the euro lasted about two