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The article looks into the process of "building" the monetary union of the EU member countries & creating the European currency, the euro. Following lengthy negotiations, the euro-system era commenced on 1 Jan 1999, when the euro was launched, marking the beginning of the third phase of the monetary union. At first, the euro will be virtual money & function as a dual currency, but in 2002, it will be printed/coined for everyday usage. In the first half of that year, local currencies will be replaced by the euro in eleven EU countries that have satisfied the stringent criteria of "suitability" for joining the monetary union. 1 Appendix. Adapted from the source document.

The author is of the opinion that with the fall of the Berlin wall, not all obstacles to the free circulation of goods & people were eliminated -- either in Europe or in other regions of the world -- since there are numerous other walls standing in the way of establishing a global world or even a European order. In that context, agreement among the members of the European Union on the comprehensive control of "its borders" against nonmember European countries is considered by the author as a type of new "curtain," not "iron" any longer, but electronic. Its function, the author claims, is to divide Europe into EU & non-EU, which is harmful for the promotion of the European idea in the spiritual & material senses in many ways. Adapted from the source document.

Understanding Central Europe as a particular European region is based on historical & cultural heritage of the Mitteleuropa & on the revival of the Central European identity in the 1980s. Central European regional cooperation has been promoted in the late 1980s & early 1990s, particularly through the following cooperation schemes: Pentagonale/Central European Initiative (now dissolved), the Vishegrad Group, & the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). These schemes have been supported by the European Union & they fit its strategy of widening that is now based on the differentiated integration, which implies strengthening of economic & monetary union & defense union. The European Union tends to link the Central European region to the Baltic countries, rather than connect it with Southeastern Europe, which is regarded as a special case, covered by the peace restoration strategy. Central Europe is a region of uneven development & very diversified cultures & peoples. It is therefore difficult to treat it as a structured European region. EU focuses on a number of states that form "the intersection of different areas of integration," & in this respect Central Europe may be best understood as a development & transformation project that might create a new type of differentiated relationships among states & cultures within Central Europe & between Central Europe & the European Union. Focusing on Central Europe may turn the region into the central project of European development. Adapted from the source document.

The author criticizes those Euro-sceptics who still treat the European Union as an open project that requires major decisions on the road to its fruition, as if the Union had not relinquished the model of the classical nation-state a long time ago. The author also promotes a reinterpretation of those aspects of European history that have given rise or might give rise to anti-European sentiments. Adapted from the source document.