York & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Roland Harris is urging his 630 members to become bilingual or multilingual to meet the challenge in the euro zone.

The request follows the launch of the euro on world economies yesterday. Britain might still be on the sidelines, along with Denmark, Greece and Sweden, but 11 European countries are now part of the euro zone.

Mr Harris is not advocating Esperanto*, but said: "It's going to take some time to come through, but members should take advantage of the excellent language training institutions based in York.

"Over the last year the Chamber has been involved in organising a series of events to encourage small businesses to make decisions for themselves. This was in order to get people to understand and make them aware of the impact the single currency might have on their firms.

"Purely from observation we still lag behind our European counterparts to a very substantial degree in the languages department, but we are seeing a trend towards many more enlightened people becoming proficient in another tongue."

Regarding the euro, he said: "Many smaller and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are not prepared for the long-term implications of the new currency. What causes concern is that a number of these SMEs may be part of a supply chain which will progressively involve billing and payment in euros.

"It's not a political issue, more a case of being pragmatic. Clearly, the benefits of the single market outweigh the disadvantages, and that's why SMEs should set up Euro accounts."

At one stage the Chamber suggested a link between the Millennium bug and the euro. "If you're re-equipping an accounts package for the Millennium, you should kill two birds with one stone by considering a euro-friendly system," he said.

Meanwhile, small businesses do not have much to look forward to this year, say economists, but hopefully the mild recession they forecast will be short-lived.

"The first half of 1999 will be particularly difficult," says James Barty, senior economist with Deutsche Bank. "But from the second half onwards, the economy should start to recover again, because interest rates and the currency are going to come down.

"That will put more cash into people's pockets and on the currency side it will ease pressure on our exporters who really have been suffering."

So there will be a mini-recession, albeit a short one, and hopefully survivable, if companies handle themselves well.

Mr Barty says in 1998 economists failed to pick up on how quickly things would slow down during the year.

The small business sector is probably suffering more than most, says Mr Barty.

Esperanto, the international artificial language, based on words common to the chief European languages, was invented by a Polish man, Dr LL Zamenhof (1859-1917).

Past, present and future

December 1969: European Community directs Luxembourg Prime Minister Pierre Werner to study possibilities of creating common currency.

October 1970: Werner's report sets out plans for monetary union within ten years. Plan collapses amid currency turmoil and oil crisis of early 1970s.

March 1979: European Monetary System launched to limit fluctuations between member currencies.

April 1989: European Commission President Jacques Delors relaunches plan for currency union.

December 1991: New European Union treaty calls for creation of single currency by Jan. 1, 1999. Britain and Denmark demand opt out. Nations hoping to join must meet five economic criteria - low inflation and deficits, falling debt, stable currency, modest interest rates.

August 1993: Currency project threatened by speculation that breaks EMS apart; plan survives as restrictions on currency fluctuations are relaxed.

December 1995: EU leaders name the currency the "euro".

December 1996: EU leaders unveil euro note designs, featuring bridges, windows and doorways in European styles.

May 2, 1998: EU leaders endorse list of 11 nations ready to adopt euro: Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Austria and Finland. Britain, Denmark, Sweden stay out. Greece fails to meet the euro's economic criteria. Wim Duisenberg, of The Netherlands, picked to head new European Central Bank.

Dec. 31, 1998: EU finance ministers agree irrevocable conversion rate between euro and participating currencies.

Jan. 1, 1999: Euro formally created. Non-cash transactions in euros begin, including stock and bond trading, business deals, credit-card payments. European Central Bank sets common interest rate for euro-zone.

Jan. 1, 2002: Euro bank notes and coins enter circulation alongside national currencies. Within six months, national currencies phased out.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.