A city council debates whether its citizens should be allowed to pay taxes in euros.
Local banks open a clearinghouse in Frankfurt, Germany, for transfers and settlements in euros.
No, Switzerland, which could not join the 11 nations that have embraced the euro even if it wanted to because it is not a member of the European Union. The arrival of the euro is expected to stoke debate about whether the Swiss, recently immersed in a pained discussion of their financial role as a neutral nation during the Nazi conquest of much of Europe, should forfeit their cherished separateness as Europe unifies all around them. No one expects the country to desert the venerable Swiss franc any time soon. Bankers are less concerned about which currency to choose than about the bubble in world stock markets or the financial crisis in Brazil. But none of this has kept the Swiss, especially companies with extensive outside ties, from approaching the euro with an affection that eclipses that in some of their larger neighbors.