WRITTEN QUESTION P-3525/01 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Seignorage revenue.
Date: 2001-12-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, European Central Bank, budgetary resources, central bank, euro, gross domestic product, issuing of currency

20.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 147 E/197

Greece refuses to recognise their existence and denies them fundamental rights. For instance, they are
strictly prohibited from using their language in public and all historical inscriptions in these languages
have been obliterated or destroyed, as have monuments which might evoke the existence of these
minorities.

Furthermore, particularly in the case of ethnic Macedonian Greek citizens living abroad, Greece is doing
everything it can to prevent them from returning to their homeland, by revoking their citizenship, alleging
that they have committed anti-patriotic acts.

Is the Council aware of this situation?

As minority rights constitute one of the basic principles of the European Union today, how does the
Council envisage ensuring that Greece observes these rights?

Reply

(18 March 2002)

1.
The Council would remind the Honourable Member that as regards national and regional cultural
diversity, the Community is charged by the Treaty with contributing to the flowering of the cultures of the
Member States while respecting that diversity. Inter alia, the Community should, if necessary, support and
supplement the actions of the Member States in the areas referred to in Article 151(2) of the Treaty. At its
meeting on 5 November 2001,
the Council adopted a Resolution on the role of culture in the
development of the European Union and conducted an open debate, broadcast live to the public, on the
same subject.

2.
In that Resolution, the Council invited the Member States and the Commission, guided as they are by
respect for cultural diversity, the principle of subsidiarity and the determination to place culture at the
heart of European integration,

1 to develop cultural cooperation, European artistic creativity and cultural exchanges,

1 to cooperate in order to enable the Commission to update the assessment of the implementation of

Article 151(4) of the TEC and to report back to the Council.

It considered it important to start work, particularly on the basis of that assessment, on improving the
implementation of Article 151(2) and (4) of the TEC, and invited future Presidencies to draw up a work
programme and a timetable for that purpose

3.
At the end of the open debate on the importance of cultural diversity in the development of the
European Union, the Presidency concluded that there was a problem in matching the ambitions expressed
in the context of European cooperation in the field of culture and the resources made available for
implementing them, and that
there should be a review and reflection on new and more effective
instruments to be taken into account, possibly as part of the forthcoming review of the Treaties, the debate
on cultural identity and its values being no mere abstraction in the present context.

(2002/C 147 E/206)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3525/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(20 December 2001)

Subject: Seignorage revenue

Will the Commission estimate for each Member State the likely financial gain from the introduction of the
euro in seignorage revenue?

Will it further express this as a percentage of GDP in each case?

C 147 E/198

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.6.2002

Has this revenue been taken into account in the Commission’s existing projections for public finances?

How should it be treated in public finances?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(25 January 2002)

The Commission does not have any comparable estimates for Member States of the likely financial gain
from the introduction of the euro on seignorage revenues. The introduction of the euro essentially involves
the substitution of non-interest-bearing claims denominated in euro for the non-interest-bearing claims
denominated in the original national currencies and as such has no direct effect on aggregate seignorage
revenue in the euro area. The allocation of seignorage income among the euro area National Central Banks
(NCBs) will be based on the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) capital key (Article 32.5 of the European
System Central Bank’s Statute). On 6 December 2001, the ECB Governing Council agreed on a transitional
regime of five years in order to mitigate the impact of the introduction of euro banknotes on the NCBs’
current relative income positions. Future shifts in the patterns of cash holdings and possible non-surrender
of notes and coins in the original national currencies will also have an impact on the balance sheets of
central banks (notes) and governments (coins). At present the scale of such impacts and the timing of their
recognition in balance sheets are not clear.

In the light of the above it is not possible to further express this as a percentage of gross national product
in each case.

The Commission has not taken into account any gains of the kind referred to in its projections for the
public finances.

Seignorage revenue is an analytical concept which is not identified in the European System of national
accounting framework used for the public finances but it makes its presence felt through property income
flows. Essentially, the transactions and balance sheet adjustments involved are ‘below the line’ and should
have no impact on the general government surplus/deficit. Any transfers to government from central
banks of exceptional gains from the transition should be treated as financial transactions not affecting the
government surplus/deficit but potentially affecting government debt.

(2002/C 147 E/207)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3528/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Expenditure on Private Finance Initiatives and Public Private Partnerships

1. Will the Commission specify the annual expenditure commitments entered into by each Member
State with respect to arrangements such as Private Finance Initiatives or Public Private Partnerships for the
last five years, and for as far into the future as they are given?

2. Will it further express such commitments as a percentage of GDP and projected GDP?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(26 February 2002)

The Commission does not have the information requested.