# Do any non-EU countries use the euro? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 21, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444 "2005-04-21T17:05:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/1 "2005-04-21T17:05:05Z")
I know that some small countries have no currency of their own and just use the U.S. dollar. Ecuador comes immediately to mind, but I think there are some Caribbean countries that also use the dollar. Have any nations that are not part of the EU, similarly, adopted the euro as their currency? Are any considering it? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/2 "2005-04-21T17:13:33Z")
Monaco and Andorra are the two that spring to mind. It’s also commonly used as a parallel in areas such as Kosovo, which have a large European military presence, in the way that US$ are used in some parts of central America. And plenty of places in Switzerland will accept it. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/3 "2005-04-21T17:17:14Z")
Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican use the Euro, also the Kosovo (not-quite-a-country). ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/4 "2005-04-21T17:52:04Z")
Montenegro too according to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurozone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurozone) ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/5 "2005-04-21T17:58:28Z")
Kosovo, too. But they don’t really have an economy: there are some estimates that as much as 70% of economic activity in Kosovo is due to aid inflows, mostly European. ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/6 "2005-04-21T18:11:31Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Monaco and Andorra are the two that spring to mind. It’s also commonly used as a parallel in areas such as Kosovo, which have a large European military presence, in the way that US$ are used in some parts of central America. The euro is not just a parallel currency, in unofficial use. The German mark was declared to be the legal tender currency by the UN governor of the province a few years back. The euro, of course, succeeded the mark. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/7 "2005-04-21T18:14:21Z")
My mistake - thanks, **dqa** ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/8 "2005-04-21T18:21:38Z")
My 2002 CIA World Factbook says that French Guiana, Guadelupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion and Saint Pierre et Miquelon all use the Euro. Each of these is a Dependency of France, although a couple of them are additionally described as “self-governing.” ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/9 "2005-04-21T18:30:03Z")
And here’s an on-line listing of world currencies in the 2004 CIA World Fact Book. [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2065.html](http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2065.html) I highly recommend downloading a copy of this valuable and comprehensive resource. You can do that here: [http://www.cia.gov/cia/download.html](http://www.cia.gov/cia/download.html) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/10 "2005-04-21T23:33:22Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > My 2002 CIA World Factbook says that French Guiana, Guadelupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion and Saint Pierre et Miquelon all use the Euro. Each of these is a Dependency of France, although a couple of them are additionally described as “self-governing.” Actually, French Guiana for one is simply a part of France, as far as the government is concerned - it is a “département d’outre-mer” or DOM, which is just as much a part of France as any other département on the mainland. I am not 100% sure of the status of the other areas you mention. I know there are “DOMs” and “TOMs” (territoires d’outre-mer). Ah, here we are: [http://www.citepa.org/emissions/regionale/outre\_mer/index\_en.htm](http://www.citepa.org/emissions/regionale/outre_mer/index_en.htm) > [@](#): > > The four DOMs are Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Reunion. > > The TOMs are French Polynesia, Wallis-and-Futuna and the French Southern and Antarctic Territories… The territorial collectivities are Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon and Mayotte. New Caledonia is unique in enjoying a particular status in France giving it a degree of autonomy. Certainly the four DOMs are as much part of France as Marseilles or Paris. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/11 "2005-04-22T16:56:27Z")
All very interesting, but I’m vaguely disappointed. Instead of postage-stamp countries like Andorra or San Marino, I was looking for countries that you’d expect to have its own currency, based on population or political influence. But that uses the Euro anyway. A euro-equivalent to Ecuador, in other words. Are there any of those? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/12 "2005-04-22T17:05:26Z")
Doesn’t appear to be. Mebbe it’s just too new. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/13 "2005-04-22T17:07:08Z")
There are also countries which have their own currencies that are pegged to the Euro by treaty. From [here](http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/euro/world/euro_world_3_en.htm): > [@](#): > > The CFA franc area is composed of two monetary unions: the WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union), consisting of Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, where it stands for Communauté financière africaine (African Financial Community), and the CAEMC (Central African Economic and Monetary Community), consisting of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, where it signifies Coopération financière en Afrique centrale (Financial Co-operation in Central Africa). > > ``` > Both the CFA franc area and the Comoros islands previously enjoyed currency agreements with the French franc, whilst Cape Verde had an agreement with Portugal. > > The EU agreed that France and Portugal could maintain these agreements in the form of a peg with the euro, but that the signatories would continue to retain sole responsibility for their implementation. > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/14 "2005-04-22T17:09:09Z")
Nope, there’s no such countries. The major western European countries not using the Euro are the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden (I don’t think I’ve forgotten any 😉 ). Most of the rest of Europe is planning on getting there at some stage, but always within the EU system. Ecuador adopted the $ out of desperation. Given time, it’s possible that a country finding itself in a comparable economic meltdown would, for geographic and trade reasons, find it preferable to use the Euro in such a way. Belarus, perhaps? A former Soviet state such as Azerbaijan? Iraq?! (Hey, it does share a border with a prospective EU member…) ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/15 "2005-04-23T02:36:28Z")
> [@Fiver](#): > > Instead of postage-stamp countries like Andorra or San Marino, I was looking for countries that you’d expect to have its own currency I thought you were giving Montenegro short shrift by calling it a postage-stamp country, but it is in fact smaller than all of the “real” countries (no offense to the good folks of Palau) that use the greenback. I’ll ignore the fact that Kosovo isn’t really a country for this list - actually, neither is Montenegro, at least for the next year or two. **Dollar countries** Ecuador 283560 km² El Salvador 21040 East Timor 15007 Palau 458 Micronesia 702 Marshall Islands 181 **Euro countries** Montenegro 13938 km² Kosovo 10887 Andorra 468 San Marino 61 Monaco 2 Vatican City 0 ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-non-eu-countries-use-the-euro/300444/16 "2005-04-23T14:52:08Z")
Iceland isn’t using the euro either, if we’re counting that as Western Europe. The list of countries in which the US dollar is accepted (even preferred) on the ground, although not valid tender in an official sense, is huge. The Bosnian “Konvertible Mark” was pegged to the German mark, although people seemed to prefer the genuine article to their own new currency. The KM is now pegged to the euro, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if people would prefer to accept “real” euros over them.