2006/75/EC: Council Decision of  30 January 2006  amending and extending Decision 2001/923/EC establishing an exchange, assistance and training programme for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting (the  Pericles  programme)
Date: 2006-01-30
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU programme, action programme, euro, fight against crime, industrial counterfeiting

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Official Journal of the European Union

8.2.2006

II

(Acts whose publication is not obligatory)

COUNCIL

COUNCIL DECISION

of 30 January 2006

amending and extending Decision 2001/923/EC establishing an exchange, assistance and training
programme for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting (the ‘Pericles’ programme)

(2006/75/EC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

establishing the European
Having regard to the Treaty
Community, and in particular the third sentence of Article
123(4) thereof,

and the Commission on budgetary discipline
and
improvement of the budgetary procedure (4) is included
in the Decision for the entire duration of the programme,
without thereby affecting the powers of the budgetary
authority as they are defined by the Treaty.

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (1),

(4)

The continuation of the programme reflects the need for
training and technical assistance
continuing vigilance,
necessary to sustain the protection of the euro against
counterfeiting.

Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank (2),

(5)

Whereas:

In accordance with Article 13(3)(a) of Council Decision
2001/923/EC (3),
the Commission is to send to the
European Parliament and to the Council by 30 June
2005 a report, which shall be independent of
the
programme manager, evaluating the relevance, the effi-
ciency and the effectiveness of the programme and a
communication on whether this programme should be
continued and adapted, accompanied by an appropriate
proposal.

The evaluation report provided for in Article 13 of that
Decision was issued on 30 November 2004. It concludes
that the programme has been achieving its objectives and
recommends that the programme be continued.

(1)

(2)

(3)

The efficiency of the programme in protecting the euro
could be enhanced if the technical support were enlarged
also to provide, with the involvement of Europol, for
cooperation in cross-border
financial
operations and it could benefit,
in duly justified cases,
from greater flexibility in the proportion of the costs
the Community may bear and in the number of
projects one Member State may present.

support

for

(6)

Decision 2001/923/EC should therefore be amended
accordingly,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Amendments

Decision 2001/923/EC is hereby amended as follows:

A financial reference amount, within the meaning of
point 34 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May
the Council
1999 between the European Parliament,

1. the last sentence of Article 1(2) shall be replaced by the

following:

(1) Opinion delivered on 13 October 2005 following non-compulsory

consultation (not yet published in the Official Journal).

‘It shall run from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2006.’;

(2) OJ C 161, 1.7.2005, p. 11.
(3) OJ L 339, 21.12.2001, p. 50.

(4) OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1.

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2. the following point shall be added to Article 2(2):

(b) the following subparagraph shall be added to para-

graph 1:

‘(e) an aim to publish the results achieved, as part of the
exchange of information, experience and good practices.’;

3. the following point shall be added to Article 3(3):

‘(d) on a secondary basis financial support for cooperation in
cross-border operations when such support
is not
available from other European institutions and bodies.’;

4. the first subparagraph of Article 6 shall be replaced by the

following:

‘The financial reference amount for the implementation of
the Community action programme for the period from 1
January 2002 to 31 December 2005 shall be EUR 4 million.

The financial reference amount for the implementation of
the Community action programme for the period from 1
January 2006 to 31 December 2006 shall be EUR 1
million.’;

5.

in Article 10(1), the introductory phrase shall be replaced by
the following:

‘The Community shall,
in duly justified cases, bear up to
80 % of the cost of the operational support referred to in
Article 3 by way of co-financing, in particular:’;

6.

in Article 11 ‘70 %’ shall be replaced by ‘80 %’;

7. Article 12 shall be amended as follows:

(a)

the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 shall be
replaced by the following:

‘Member States may present one or, exceptionally, two
projects a year concerning the workshops, meetings and
seminars referred to in the second subparagraph of
Article 3(2). Projects in connection with placements,
exchanges or assistance may also be presented.’;

‘In case more than one proposal are presented by one
Member State, coordination is carried out by the national
competent authority defined in Article 2(b) fourth indent
of Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001.’;

(c)

in paragraph 2, point
following:

(e) shall be replaced by the

‘(e) the intrinsic quality of the project in terms of its
conception, organisation, presentation, objectives
and cost-effectiveness ratio’;

(d) the following point shall be added in paragraph 2:

‘(h) compatibility with work being carried out or planned
as part of EU action in the field of combating
currency counterfeiting’.

Article 2

Applicability

in the participating Member
This Decision shall have effect
States as defined in the first indent of Article 1 of Council
Regulation (EC) No 974/98 of 3 May 1998 on the introduction
of the euro (1).

Article 3

Entry into force

This Decision shall take effect on the day of its publication in
the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 1 January 2006.

Done at Brussels, 30 January 2006.

For the Council
The President

U. PLASSNIK

(1) OJ L 139, 11.5.1998, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

lation (EC) No 2169/2005 (OJ L 346, 29.12.2005, p. 1).