2 euro 2009, Economic and Monetary Union, Finland

The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is an umbrella term for the group of policies aimed at converging the economies of members of the European Union in three stages so as to allow them to adopt a single currency, the euro. As such, it is largely synonymous with the eurozone. All member states of the European Union are expected to participate in the EMU. The Copenhagen criteria is the current set of conditions of entry for states wanting to join the EU. It contains the requirements that need to be fulfilled and the time framework within which this must be done in order for a country to join the monetary union. An important element of this is the European Exchange Rate Mechanism ("ERM II"), in which candidate currencies demonstrate economic convergence by maintaining limited deviation from their target rate against the euro.