The European Union’s finance ministers gave formal approval on July 8 for Slovakia to begin using the euro. The changeover will take place on January 1, 2009. The move will make Slovakia the 16th country to join the euro zone. It is also the first of the former Warsaw Pact countries that joined the EU in 2004 to replace its national currency with the common European one. At a meeting, the EU finance ministers settled on an exchange rate of 30.1260 Slovak crowns for EUR 1, diplomats said. (Deutsche Welle)