EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 20 December 2006 
at the request of the Portuguese Ministry of Finance and Public Administration 
on a draft decree-law on the authentication and treatment of euro coins 
(CON/2006/61) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 16 October 2006 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Portuguese Ministry 
of Finance and Public Administration for an opinion  on a draft decree-law on the authentication of euro 
coins and the treatment of euro coins which are unfit for circulation or reissue (hereinafter the ‘draft 
decree-law’). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the second and third 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 provisions1, as the draft decree-law relates to means of payment and the Banco de Portugal. 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.  Purpose of the draft decree-law The aim of the draft decree-law is to align the Port uguese legal framework for the protection of the euro 
with Commission Recommendation 2005/504/EC of 27 May 2005 concerning authentication of euro coins and the treatment of euro coins unfit for circulation
2. More specifically, the draft decree-law: 
(i) regulates the recycling of euro coins by cred it institutions and other professional cash handlers 
(hereinafter collectively ‘operators’); (ii) establishes requirements to ensure that operators duly withdraw 
from circulation coins which are unfit for circulati on, counterfeit or forged, or are suspected to be 
counterfeit or forged; and (iii) grants  the Banco de Portugal rights to issue regulations in this field, to 
inspect coin sorting machines and to impose fines fo r breaches of the duties imposed by the draft decree-
law. 
 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  OJ L 184, 15.7.2005, p. 60. 
2 2.  General observations 
2.1 Pursuant to Article 11 of C ouncil Regulation (EC) No 974/98 of 3 May 1998 on the introduction of 
the euro3, the issue of euro coins is the responsibility of the Member States that have adopted the 
euro; however, this is subject to the ECB’s approva l of the volume of coin issuance. In Portugal the 
Ministry of Finance’s Treasury department is r esponsible for issuing euro coins, whilst the Banco 
de Portugal ensures that such coins are put into circulation. The draft decree-law will enhance the 
Banco de Portugal’s role since it delegates new task s to the Banco de Portugal in relation to coin 
recyling which complement the euro banknote recycl ing tasks that the Banco de Portugal already 
performs. 
2.2 The ECB welcomes the fact that, in future, the Banco de Portugal will be able to control the cash 
cycle more efficiently by supervising and monito ring coin handling operations that are conducted 
externally by operators. It also welcomes the fact  that the Banco de Portugal will be able to 
centrally process and report information on the totality of r ecycling operations. 
2.3 The draft decree-law establishes a regime concerning the protection of the euro against 
counterfeiting, which will contribute to the process of  reinforcing public trust in the euro, assuming 
that it is fully implemented and that the Banco de Portugal issues follow-up regulations. 
 3.  Specific observations 3.1 Article 2(1) of the draft decree-law sets out the addressees of the draft decree-law, i.e. credit 
institutions and other professional cash handlers, a nd clarifies that the scope of the latter includes 
companies which transport valuables. The ECB notes that the wording of Article 2(2) is fairly 
broad, and as the draft decree-law imposes sancti ons on the addressees for non-compliance with the 
duties imposed by the draft decree-law, the ECB invites the consulting authority to consider 
whether the scope of the addressees is sufficiently cl ear to fulfil the requirement of legal certainty 
under Portuguese law on administrative sanctions.   
3.2. The ECB notes that breaches of the duties impo sed by the draft decree-law constitute an offence 
punishable by an administrative fine. For the sak e of legal clarity, it is recommended that the 
procedure for imposing such fines described in Arti cle 11(3) of the draft decree-law is set out in 
more detail.  
3.3 Moreover, given that the draft decree-law deals exclusively with the recycling of coins, the ECB 
recommends that the reference to banknotes in Arti cle 11(1) is deleted, since the draft decree-law 
does not cover banknotes and thus any possible confus ion with the separate and specific recycling 
regime applicable to euro banknotes would be avoided. 
   
                                                 
3  OJ L 139, 11.5.1998, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1647/2006 (OJ L 309, 9.11.2006, p. 2). 
3 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 20 December 2006. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET