EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 30 November 2007  
at the request of the Central Bank of Cyprus on  a draft law amending the Cy priot Currency  Law   
(CON/2007/39) 
 
Introduction and legal basis On 29 October 2007 the European Central Bank (E CB) received a request from the Central Bank of 
Cyprus (hereinafter the ‘CBC’) for an opinion  on a draft law amending the Law on currency 
(Counterfeiting and Related Matters) 2004 (hereinafter, the ‘dra ft law’ and the ‘Currency Law’ 
respectively).  
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the first and second indents of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 
29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Ce ntral Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions
1, as the draft law relates to currency matte rs. In accordance with the first sentence 
of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of th e European Central Bank, the Governing Council has 
adopted this opinion. 
 1. Purpose of the draft law  
The main purposes of the draft law are: (i) to amend the statutory definition of  ‘currency’, and (ii) to 
clarify the interaction between Section 9 of the Cu rrency Law, which prohibits certain dealings with 
tokens similar to ‘currency’, as defined in Section 2 of the Currency Law, and two Community legal acts, 
namely Council Regulation (EC) No 2182/2004 of 6 December 2004 concerning medals and tokens 
similar to euro coins
2 (hereinafter the ‘Council Regulation’) and Decision ECB/2003/4 of 20 March 2003 
on the denominations, specifications, reproduction,  exchange and withdrawal of euro banknotes3 
(hereinafter the ‘ECB Decision’). Section 5 of the dr aft law provides that these changes are due to enter 
into force on 1 January 2008. 
 
 
                                                      
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2   OJ L 373, 21.12.2004, p.1. 
3   OJ L 78, 25.03.2003, p.16. 
 
2 2. General observations  
2.1 Section 2 of the draft law amends, for the first time since the adoption of the Currency Law, the 
statutory definition of ‘currency’. The ECB understands  that the aim of this amendment is to ensure 
that, after the euro has physically entered in circ ulation in the Republic of Cyprus as legal tender, 
the Cyprus pound will not be excluded from the scope of the term ‘currency’  and will continue to 
enjoy legal protection against ‘counterfeiting’, as defi ned in Section 4(1) of the Currency Law, for 
the duration of the period during which the Cypr us pound will be accepted for exchange by the 
CBC4. To the extent that the rationale of this amendm ent is to cater for the protection of the Cyprus 
pound, the ECB sees no reason to comment on Section 2 of the draft law which, in its proposed formulation, also includes the single currency by implication as ‘legal tender in the Republic’ after 
1 January 2008.  
2.2 Section 4 of the draft law serves a triple objec tive. It affirms the CBC’s commitment to its 
obligations under the ECB Decision and, at the same time, it clarifies the relationship between 
Section 9(1) of the Currency Law and the Council Regulation. Finally, it also introduces sanctions 
for breaches of Article 2 of the Council Regulation pe rpetrated within the territory of the Republic 
of Cyprus. With regard to the interaction be tween the Currency Law and the ECB Decision, the 
ECB notes that Section 4(a) of the draft law brings Section 9 of the Currency Law in line with the ECB Decision and, in particular, with Article 2 thereof on reproduction rules for euro banknotes. 
The ECB welcomes the consulting authority’s initiativ e to propose this particular amendment in the 
interests of legal certainty. In th e same vein, the ECB appreciates th e utility of a proviso to Section 
9(1) of the Currency Law, drafted along the lines of Section 4(b) of the draft law, in order to dispel any doubts as to the statutory treatment, under Cypriot law, of medals and tokens similar to euro coins.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 30 November 2007.
 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                      
4  The reference is to the six-month peri od prescribed in Section 10(2)(b) of the Adoption of the Euro Law 2007 (N. 33(I)/2007).