European Unit of Account


The European Unit of Account was a unit of account used in the European Communities from 1975 to 1979, when it was replaced at parity by the European Currency Unit, in turn replaced at parity in 1999 by the euro.
Initially it was used for Lomé Convention and European Investment Bank operations before being gradually introduced into other sectors of Community activity.
The EUA was a basket of European currencies, originally designed to have the same value in mid-1974 as the IMF special drawing rights basket, both worth US$1.20635; they immediately moved apart in value. Different units of account had previously been used for different purposes, including the budget, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the Common Agriculture Policy following the abandonment of the gold parity unit of account in the early 1970s in the wake of the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.

Bond market baskets of currencies

Various European currency baskets were used as units of account in international bond markets. Some of these were defined in ISO 4217.
Alphabetic codeNumeric codeName
XBA955European Composite Unit
XBB956European Monetary Unit
XBC957European Unit of Account 9
XBD958European Unit of Account 17
XEU954European Currency Unit
EUR978Euro