I heard that in this city even ticket machines for car parks are made “euro-fähig”. Some point to a possible parallel use of the Euro in economies surrounding the Euro area. In fact, it was the British that first introduced the notion of a parallel currency back in the early seventies, and again during negotiations at Maastricht.
As an alternative to monetary union, they wanted the intangible European Currency Unit to compete with the national money. Should the European currency prove stable and successful, it would by the laws of nature become the sole legal tender. Along these lines, Helmut Kohl argued recently that Switzerland would adopt the Euro in 2010 at the latest.