On January 1, 2002, the European Central Bank will start issuing notes and coins for the Euro, and on July 1, 2002, the old currencies of the member countries of the European Monetary Union will cease to be legal tender. See http://europa.eu.int/euro/html/calendrier5.html?lang=5 .

The Java 2 runtime should therefore be set up to treat the Euro as the default currency for the EMU member countries from January 1, 2002.