Recommendation of the European Central Bank of 6 December 2001 regarding the abrogation of participating Member States' provisions limiting the amount of coins denominated in a national currency unit that can be used in any single payment (ECB/2001/17)
Date: 2001-12-06
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: European Central Bank, euro, euro area, exchange rate, national currency, payment

14.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 356/9

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

RECOMMENDATION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 6 December 2001

regarding the abrogation of participating Member States’ provisions limiting the amount of coins
denominated in a national currency unit that can be used in any single payment

(ECB/2001/17)

(2001/C 356/05)

THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community (hereinafter referred to as the (cid:145)Treaty(cid:146)), and in
particular to the last sentence of Article 105(4), Article 106
and the third indent of Article 110(1) thereof,

Having regard to the Statute of the European System of Central
Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter referred
to as the (cid:145)Statute(cid:146)), and in particular to Article 4(b) and Article
34.1 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) The status of

legal tender of banknotes denominated in
euro has been laid down in Article 106(1) of the Treaty,
as well as in Article 16 of the Statute and Article 10 of
Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98 of 3 May 1998 on the
introduction of the euro (1).

(2) Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 974/98 establishes the
legal
tender status of coins denominated in euro and
limits the obligation to accept coins denominated in euro
in any single payment to the amount of 50 coins.

(3) Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 974/98 states that after
the end of the transitional period the references made in
legal
instruments to the national currency units shall be
read as references to the euro unit according to the
respective conversion rates.

(4) Some of the Member States which have adopted the euro
in accordance with the Treaty have legal provisions in force
limiting the amount of coins denominated in a national
currency unit that can be used in any single payment.
Such national provisions may give rise, after these coins
lose their legal tender status, to an ambiguous state of
affairs and jeopardise the clarity and certainty of the law.
Given the wording of Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No

(1) OJ L 139, 11.5.1998, p. 1.

974/98, parties may be unclear about the legal limits on
the amount of coins
that can be used to discharge
pecuniary debts. In particular, parties might continue to
apply the limits established by national
legal provisions
to coins denominated in euro after the end of the dual
circulation period or, in the absence of such a period, of
the transitional period.

(5) Legal clarity and certainty could be jeopardised if partici-
pating Member States insert clauses or wording referring to
coins
limit
national provisions
denominated in a national currency unit that can be used
in any single payment, where these provisions have not
in their future contractual arrangements
been abrogated,
with national
coins
the
central banks
denominated in euro by them.

amount of

issue of

that

the

for

(6) The European Central Bank (ECB) may submit recommen-
dations in its field of competence to the appropriate
Community institutions or bodies or to national auth-
orities. In the process of the issue of
legal tender coins
by the participating Member States approval by the ECB
of the volume of the issue must be granted. In order to
avoid any misunderstanding of the scope of the legal tender
status of euro coins issued by the participating Member
States and approved by the ECB,
the ECB considers it
necessary to address a recommendation to participating
Member States on national provisions, which may still be
limiting the amount of coins denominated in a
in force,
national currency unit
that can be used in any single
payment,

HAS ADOPTED THIS RECOMMENDATION:

Article 1

Definitions

For the purposes of this recommendation:

(cid:151) (cid:145)participating Member States(cid:146) shall mean all Member States
which have adopted the single currency in accordance with
the Treaty,

C 356/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

14.12.2001

(cid:151) (cid:145)national currency unit(cid:146)

shall mean each unit of

the
currencies of participating Member States, as that unit
was defined on the day before the start of the third stage
of economic and monetary union or, as the case may be,
on the day before the euro has been substituted for the
currency of a Member State which has adopted the euro
at a later date.

Article 2

Abrogation of national provisions limiting the amount of
coins used in any single payment

1.
Participating Member States should expressly abrogate
any legal provision which may still be in force in their
respective
coins
limiting
denominated in a national currency unit
that a party is
obliged to accept in any single payment.

legal orders

amount of

the

longer in force when coins denominated in a national currency
unit lose their legal tender status in accordance with Regulation
(EC) No 974/98 and the relevant national cash changeover
legislation.

Article 3

Final provisions

This recommendation is addressed to participating Member
States.

This recommendation shall be published in the Official Journal
of the European Communities.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 6 December 2001.

2.
Participating Member States should seek to abrogate the
legal provisions referred to in paragraph 1 so that they are no

The President of the ECB

Willem F. DUISENBERG