----

----

I Information

Commission

----

Euro exchange rates (1)

30 December 2005

(2005/C 336/01)

1 euro= 

----

(1)

Source: reference exchange rate published by the ECB.

----

----

HOLIDAYS IN 2006

(2005/C 336/02)

----

----

Information communicated by Member States regarding State aid granted under Commission Regulation (EC) No 70/2001 of 12 January 2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 364/2004 of 25 February 2004 as regards the extension of its scope to include aid for research and development

(2005/C 336/03)

(Text with EEA relevance)

----

----

Commission notice on current State aid recovery interest rates and reference/discount rates for 25 Member States applicable as from 1 January 2006

(Published in accordance with Article 10 of Commission Regulation (EC) 794/2004 of 21 April 2004 (OJ L 140, 30.4.2004, p. 1) and the Commission notice on the method for setting the reference and discount rates (OJ C 273, 9.9.1997, p. 3))

(2005/C 336/04)

----

----

Commission communication in the framework of the implementation of the Directive 98/37/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to machinery

(2005/C 336/05)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(Publication of titles and references of harmonised standards under the directive)

NOTE:

More information about harmonised standards on the Internet at

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/newapproach/standardization/harmstds/

----

(1)  ESO: European Standardisation Organisation:

(2)OJ L 204, 21.7.1998, p. 37.

(3)OJ L 217, 5.8.1998, p. 18.

----

----

List of agencies and laboratories which third countries have made responsible for completing the documents which must accompany each consignment of wine imported into the Community

(Article 29 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 883/2001)

(2005/C 336/06)

This list cancels and replaces the list published in Official Journal of the European Union C 213 of 31 August 2005

----

European Central Bank

----

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 15 December 2005

on a proposal for an EC regulation on information on the payer accompanying transfers of funds

(CON/2005/56)

(2005/C 336/07)

On 14 October 2005 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Council of the European Union for an opinion on a ‘Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on information on the payer accompanying transfers of funds’ (COM(2005) 343 final) (hereinafter the ‘proposed regulation’) (1).

The ECB's competence to deliver an opinion is primarily based on the first indent of Article 105(4), in conjunction with the fourth indent of Article 105(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, as the proposed regulation concerns a basic task of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), namely to promote the smooth operation of payment systems (2). In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion.

1.   Obligations of intermediary payment service providers

2.   Definitions

3.   Commercial transactions

4.   Batch file transfers

Article 7(2) of the proposed regulation governs batch file transfers to payees outside the Community. Such transfers concern individual transfers from one payer to different payees, which have been bundled and are then usually ‘unbundled’ by the first PSP in the process or a payment system operator and subsequently sorted according to the PSP of the payee. Therefore, neither the payee nor its PSP will be able to identify that the funds received have originally been transferred via a batch file. If the payee is situated in a country which is a member of the FATF, the country in question must also apply SR VII. Consequently, the PSP of the payee would need to contact the PSP of the payer within the Community or the first intermediary PSP to obtain the relevant information. Therefore, it is noted that the use of batch file transfers at a cross-border level will generate a large number of requests for provision of information on the payer.

5.   Agreements with territories or countries outside the Community

Article 18 of the proposed regulation states that the European Commission may authorise agreements between Member States and countries or territories outside the Community which contain derogations from the proposed regulation. Such authorisation requires fulfilment of a number of conditions. In view of the consolidation of financial markets in the EU and the development of the Single Euro Payments Area, the first and third conditions (i.e. that the country or territory shares a monetary union with the Member State concerned or forms part of the currency area of the Member State concerned and that it requires PSPs under its jurisdiction to apply the same rules as those established under the proposed regulation) seem to be sufficient to achieve the aims of the authorisation requirement. Therefore, the second condition (that the country or territory is a member of the payment and clearing systems of the Member State concerned) could be deleted.

6.   Drafting proposals

Where the above advice would lead to changes in the proposed regulation, drafting proposals are enclosed in the annex.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 15 December 2005.

The President of the ECB

Jean-Claude TRICHET

----

(1)  This opinion is based on the version of the proposed regulation on which the ECB was formally consulted, namely the version of 26 July 2005. The ECB is, however, aware that the proposed regulation has undergone further elaboration at Council working group level during the UK Presidency.

(2)  In addition, the ECB's competence to deliver an opinion is based on Article 22 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank concerning the task of the ECB and the national central banks to, inter alia, ensure efficient and sound clearing and payment systems within the Community and with other countries.

(3)  I.e. the information required under Chapters II and III of the proposed regulation. A similar comment was made by the ECB in paragraph 12 of ECB Opinion CON/2005/2 of 4 February 2005 at the request of the Council of the European Union on a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering, including terrorist financing (OJ C 40, 17.2.2005, p. 9). In that opinion, the ECB pointed to the fact that payment system operators can only check the mere presence of some information in a field; they cannot check the quality, completeness, accuracy or meaningfulness of that information. The ECB recommended that payment system operators be exempted from a requirement to identify beneficial owners, without prejudice to the payment system operators' obligation to ensure that the payment orders entered into payment systems can be effectively traced by means of an appropriate identification of the system participants.

(4)  Recital 34 to Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (OJ L 309, 25.11.2005, p. 15).

(5)  Available on the FATF's website at www.fatf-gafi.org.

(6)  ‘Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on payment services in the internal market and amending Directives 97/7/EC, 2000/12/EC and 2002/65/EC’, 1 December 2005, COM(2005) 603 final; available on the Commission's website at www.europa.eu.int.

(7)  At the same time, the ECB points to the slightly confusing terminology of the Interpretative Note, which refers to the use of cards as ‘payment systems’ when it states that card payments used for credit transfers are covered by SR VII.

----

ANNEX

DRAFTING PROPOSALS

----

(1)  Italics in the body of the text indicate where the ECB proposes deleting text.

(2)  Bold in the body of the text indicates where the ECB proposes inserting new text.

----