SLOVAKIA WILL join the euro zone on Thursday, bringing to 16 the number of European countries using the euro as their currency.

2009 will be the 10th anniversary of the creation of the euro and 84 million special commemorative €2 coins are to be issued to mark the event. The design of the coin was selected through an online vote organised by the European Commission.

"The euro has become the symbol of EU identity and is proving to be a solid and stabilising factor in currency markets both inside and outside the euro area," said Joaquín Almunia, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs.

"This is no mean feat as no other markets from banking to securities have been spared by the global financial and economic crisis. We should be proud of that record and we must safeguard the sound budgetary and macroeconomic framework that has made the euro such a success."

Slovakia will adopt the euro at a rate of 30.1260 Slovak koruna to 1 euro. Banks there began to receive euro notes and coins in September and have been supplying them to shops and businesses. Slovaks snapped up more than 90 per cent of the 1,200,000 euro coin mini-kits within just five days. The display of prices in euro and koruna will be compulsory for one year.

The euro was first created in 1999 when 11 countries, including Ireland, locked the bilateral exchange rates of their currencies and equipped themselves with a single monetary and exchange rate policy. Euro banknotes and coins were introduced in 2002.