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However, a single currency will also make Europe's economies more difficult to manage. The European Central Bank in Frankfurt must set a single interest rate for rural and still developing countries like Portugal as well as advanced ones like Germany. Unlike governments in other vast currency areas--in particular, the U.S.--the European Union doesn't yet have the power to adjust for regional imbalances with federal taxes and spending.
Still, in a place like Kosovo, the euro has given the war-weary populace a larger sense of belonging. On the euro's third day, residents of the capital, Pristina, braved sub-zero temperatures to get the bills. By day's end, a small grocery on the city's main street had 4.50[Euro] in its till, though prices were still shown in German marks, the official currency since 1999. Kosovars are used to a variety of currencies: U.S. dollars, Swiss francs, Yugoslav dinars. Now there's the euro. Says shopkeeper Shukrane Shaqiri, warming her hands by a stove: "It's the same for us, as long as it's money."
--Reported by Bruce Crumley and Delphine Schrank/Paris, James Graff/Brussels, Andrew Purvis/Pristina, Ursula Sautter/Berlin and Chris Thornton/Dublin