The Euro: Consequences for the Consumer and the Citizen

"EURO". The name of the single currency for the European Union has not been chosen casually by the Heads of State and Government during the Madrid Council of December 1995. After tough discus sions, it has been unanimously accepted. The intention was to recall to every single citizen that this new money would be his money, that it would be the expression of the new European environment carefully built since the "fifties" to avoid any return to war and barbarism in Europe. Confidence and positive expectations for a better future put in the European construction have thus been clearly linked to the confidence in the new European currency and vice-versa. Euro notes and coins will be the first expression, clear, material and universal (for any European citizen being young or old, rich or poor, but also for the rest of the world) of a European identity alongside the national one. Obviously, it is of the outmost importance that the change over to the euro, be as smooth and as citizen-friendly as possible.

Springer Book Archives

Articles.- How can European Users and Consumers Have Confidence in the Euro? Six Socio-Economic Hypotheses.- The Socio-Political Dimensions of the Currency: Implications for the Transition to the Euro.- Differences in Information Requirements Among European Citizens: More Psychology Than Socio-Demographics.- The Transition to the Euro: Some Perspectives from Economic Psychology.- of the Euro and the Dense Society.- The Euro as a Political Communication Process: Quality Requirements.- Stabilizing Citizen and Consumer Expectations by Legal Means when Introducing the Euro in the Participating Member States.- The Outlook for the Euro Changeover: A Summer and General Analysis.- Annex Report by the Euro Working Group of the Consumer Committee.- Conclusions.