WRITTEN QUESTION E-3539/00 by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Council. The euro crisis ‐ revising the date for replacing national currencies and reducing the staff of the European Central Bank.
Date: 2000-11-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Central Bank, European System of Central Banks, administration of the Institutions, euro, single monetary policy

C 187 E/16

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

3.7.2001

(2001/C 187 E/015)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3539/00

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Council

(13 November 2000)

Subject: The euro crisis (cid:129) revising the date for replacing national currencies and reducing the staff of the

European Central Bank

In view of the fact that:

(cid:129) the independence of the European Central Bank (ECB) means that its directors should be responsible

for the results of efforts to preserve the purchasing power of the euro;

(cid:129) the value of the euro is falling against not only the dollar but also the other major currencies;

(cid:129) the transition from the virtual to the cash euro is a delicate process;

(cid:129) the launching of the final stage may be seriously compromised by the (cid:145)crisis of faith(cid:146) currently

affecting public opinion;

(cid:129) a strong signal must be given to the markets in order to bring about a reversal of the trend.

1. Does the Council not consider that it should ask the Governing Council, the Executive Board and
the General Council to submit to the European Parliament a detailed report on the state of the
euro, in particular indicating whether it might be appropriate to revise the dates envisaged for
replacing national currencies with the euro?

2. Does it consider that the staff of the ECB should be reduced from 770 to 300 people, which

would be enough to carry out the work required?

3. Does the Council not feel that the nations in the euro zone, who are the victims of inappropriate

policies, might be able to demonstrate their dissatisfaction by means of referenda?

Reply

(24 April 2001)

1.
Art. 113 § 2 (ex art. 109 B) of the Treaty provides that the ECB shall annually report on its monetary
policy of both the previous and the current year to the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission
and the European Council.

In accordance with the Treaty, since the start of the third stage of EMU on 1st January 1999, national
currencies of participating Member States have been replaced by the euro at
the irrevocably fixed
conversion rates laid down in Council Regulation (EC) No 2866/98 of 31 December 1998.

2.

The Council has no role to play in determining the number of staff employed by the ECB.

3.
In accordance with the Treaty, the ESCB, which is composed of the ECB and the national central
banks and which primary objective is to maintain price stability, has exclusive competence in order to
define and implement, in full independence, the monetary policy of the Community.

The Treaty thus obliges the ECB and the national central banks to refrain from taking any instructions for
the exercise of this basic task of the ESCB, either from Community institutions or from Member States,
even if they were to be formulated in a possible national referendum on the matter.