Opinion of the European Central Bank of 16 June 2000 at the request of the Council of the European Union pursuant to Article 123(5) of the Treaty establishing the European Community on proposals for three Council Regulations amending Regulation (EC) No 974/98 on the introduction of the euro, amending Regulation (EC) No 1103/97 on certain provisions relating to the introduction of the euro and amending Regulation (EC) No 2866/98 on the conversion rates between the euro and the currencies of the Member States adopting the euro (CON/00/12)
Date: 2000-06-16
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: EU Member State, European Central Bank, euro, exchange rate, monetary union, national currency

27.6.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 177/11

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 16 June 2000

at the request of the Council of the European Union pursuant to Article 123(5) of the Treaty
establishing the European Community on proposals for three Council Regulations amending
Regulation (EC) No 974/98 on the introduction of the euro, amending Regulation (EC) No
1103/97 on certain provisions relating to the introduction of the euro and amending Regulation
(EC) No 2866/98 on the conversion rates between the euro and the currencies of the Member
States adopting the euro

(CON/00/12)

(2000/C 177/06)

the Commission of

1. On 7 June 2000 the European Central Bank (ECB) received
a request from the Council of the European Union for an
ECB opinion on proposals of
the
European Communities (COM(2000) 346 final of 30 May
2000) for three Council Regulations amending Regulation
(EC) No 974/98 on the introduction of the euro (hereinafter
referred to as (cid:145)Regulation I(cid:146)), amending Regulation (EC) No
1103/97 on certain provisions relating to the introduction
of the euro (hereinafter referred to as (cid:145)Regulation II(cid:146)) and
amending Regulation (EC) No 2866/98 on the conversion
rates between the euro and the currencies of the Member
States adopting the euro (hereinafter referred to as (cid:145)Regu-
lation III(cid:146)) respectively.

2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on
the Treaty establishing the European
Article 123(5) of
In
Community (hereinafter
accordance with Article 17(5), first sentence, of the Rules
of Procedure of the ECB, this opinion has been adopted by
the Governing Council of the ECB.

referred to as the (cid:145)Treaty(cid:146)).

3. The ECB takes note that the three draft Council Regulations
will be adopted by the Council of the European Union only
to its decision that Greece fulfils the necessary
subject
conditions for the adoption of
the single currency and
that Greece’s derogation is abrogated with effect from 1
January 2001. In order to facilitate this decision the ECB
has published a Convergence Report in May 2000 pursuant
to Article 122(2) of the Treaty.

5. The ECB welcomes the proposals for Regulation I and Regu-
lation II the intention of which is to ensure that the two
Council Regulations which form part of the legal framework
of the euro and on which the predecessor of the ECB, the
European Monetary Insititute, had been consulted (1) (cid:151)
Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98 on the introduction of
the euro (2) and Council Regulation (EC) No 1103/97 on
certain provisions
the
euro (3) (cid:151) can be fully applied to Greece.

relating to the introduction of

6. As a result of

the amendment

to be amended and the words

to Article 2 of Council
Regulation (EC) No 974/98,
the cross-reference in the
fourth indent of Article 1 of Council Regulation (EC) No
974/98 needs
(cid:145)second
sentence(cid:146) should be replaced by the words (cid:145)third sentence(cid:146).
Alternatively,
this point could be solved through the
inclusion of a semicolon between the first and the second
proposed sentences of paragraph 2 of Article 1 of Regu-
lation I.

shall

legal

status as

retain their

7. Article 9 of Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98 stipulates
that banknotes and coins denominated in a national
currency unit
tender
within their territorial
limits as to the day before the
entry into force of Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98. In
order to be consistent with the situation of the Member
States which adopted the euro on 1 January 1999, it may
be considered preferable,
to
indicate explicitly in the case of Greece that banknotes
and coins denominated in the national currency shall
retain their status as legal
tender within its territorial
limits as of the day before the adoption of the euro by
Greee,
i.e. 31 December 2000. This would warrant an
amendment to the abovementioned Article 9.

for reasons of

legal clarity,

4. In view of the complementary nature of the three draft
Council Regulations, the ECB welcomes that all of them
enter into force at the same time, namely on 11 January
2001.

(1) OJ C 205, 5.7.1997, p. 18.
(2) OJ L 139, 11.5.1998, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 162, 19.6.1997, p. 1.

C 177/12

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

27.6.2000

8. The ECB welcomes the proposal

for Regulation III

to the central rate of

the
intention of which is to irrevocably fix the conversion
rate between the euro and the Greek drachma as being
equal
the Greek drachma in the
exchange rate mechanism (ERM II), i.e. EUR 1 = 340,750
Greek drachmae. The ECB has no objection to the adoption
of the Regulation several months in advance of the effective
adoption of the euro by Greece. Being part of a regulation
which has general application and is legally binding in its
it ensures that the conversion rate of the Greek
entirety,
drachma, like the conversion rates of the currencies of the
other participating Member States, is directly applicable to

all legal instruments which refer to the currency of Greece
as from 1 January 2001.

9. This opinion shall be published in the Official Journal of the

European Communities.

Done at Frankfurt am Main on 16 June 2000.

The President of the ECB

Willem F. DUISENBERG