Montenegro and the euro Montenegro and the euro Montenegro has no currency of its own. From 1996 the Deutsche Mark was the "de facto" currency in all private and banking transactions and it was formally adopted as Montenegro's currency in November 1999. The mark was replaced by the euro in 2002 without any objections from the European Central Bank (ECB). The European Commission and the ECB have since voiced their discontent over Montenegro's unilateral use of the euro on several occasions, with Amelia Torres, a spokesperson for the European Commission, saying "The conditions for the adoption of the euro are clear. That means, first
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