KARACHI, Jan 29: The need for assessing the emergence of Euro on the international financial scene was emphasised during a workshop organized by the Area Study Centre for Europe of the University of Karachi on Wednesday.

The workshop on “Euro in the market:its political and economic impact” was organized in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.

Hafsa Abbasy discussed the introduction of Euro and its political motivation. Introduction of Euro on the functioning of money markets in Europe: the new operating environment for setting Euro Area’s interest rates was the subject of Mr Riaz Raziuddin’s paper.

Whether Euro would become a reserve currency or a vehicle currency was also discussed during the workshop which also dealt with the cost and benefit of the economics of Euro.

Director ASCE Dr Naveed Tahir emphasised the need for assessing Euro’s emergence on the international financial scene. She said the ASCE had organized the workshop to examine the impact of Euro on the market.

Permanent representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Dr Andreas Rieck, said that despite initial skepticism the European Monetary Union would eventually cover the whole of Europe.

He said that for countries outside Europe, particularly in South Asia, the EMU offered a fine example for economic integration that could lead to political integration.

President of the session, M.B.Naqvi, welcomed the introduction of Euro as international currency and hoped it would overtake dollar.

He said that the South Asian nations should draw conclusions from the example of European political and economic integration. The presentations were followed by a question-answer session.