Europe-States.com to fifteen the number of countries using the currency with increasing clout over the slumping U.S. dollar… first annual decline since 2002, as benchmarks in the U.K. and France dropped on the last day of trading… common currency to 15 and giving the two island nations a say in shaping European Central Bank policy… the euro. Scrapping currency exchange costs could kickstart the two islands’ economies. Malta… cigarettes in the run-up to a Jan. 1 smoking ban. People in Cyprus and Malta welcomed the euro currency