CELEX: 51976PC0513
Language: en
Date: 1976-09-29
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A REGULATION ( ECSC, EEC, EURATOM ) OF THE COUNCIL ON THE PROCEDURE FOR APPLYING THE EUROPEAN UNIT OF ACCOUNT ( EUA ) TO THE LEGAL ACTS ADOPTED BY THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

17.11.76                         Official Journal of the European Communities                          No C 271/5
                                                        II
                                                (Preparatory Acts)
                                            COMMISSION
             Proposal for a Council Regulation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) on the procedure for applying
             the European unit of account (EUA) to the legal acts adopted by the institutions of the
                                              European Communities
                        (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 6 October 1976)
T H E COUNCIL OF T H E EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                 and    expenditure    account    and    the  financial
                                                             balance-sheet;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
European Coal and Steel Community, in particular             Whereas it is therefore necessary to adopt the
Article 78 thereof,                                          procedure for expressing the Communities' financial
                                                             rights and obligations in EUA, and to adopt the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                 procedure for applying the new unit of account to
European Economic Community, in particular                   the General Budget of the Communities;
Articles 209 and 235 thereof,
                                                            Whereas many of the legal acts adopted by the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                 Community institutions include sums fixed in units of
European Atomic Energy Community, in particular             account or national currencies which it would be
Articles 183 and 203 thereof,                               appropriate to convert into European units of
                                                             account;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                            Whereas it would be advisable to determine what
 Having regard to the opinion of the European                principles should govern this procedure;
Parliament,
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and.           Whereas in certain cases exceptions to these
Social Committee,                                           principles should be provided for and whereas special
                                                            conversion procedures should be held in reserve for
                                                            an emergency;
Whereas the proposal for a Regulation amending the
Financial Regulation of 25 April 1973 applicable to
the General Budget of the European Communities (1)>         Whereas in order to achieve the Community's
forwarded by the Commission to the budgetary                objectives it is necessary to ensure the uniform
authorities on 19 May 1976, provides for the use of a       application of Community law and hence to lay
new European unit of account (EUA), based on a              down general rules governing the European unit of
basket of Community currencies, in the drawing up           account;
of the budget of the Communities, in the keeping of
the accounts and in the presentation of the revenue         Whereas the Treaties make no provision for the type
                                                            of authority required for making the European unit
                                                            of account applicable to all legal acts adopted by the
(») Doc. COM(76)210 final, 19 May 1976.                     Community's institutions,
 ---pagebreak--- No C 271/6                             Official Journal of the European Communities                              17.11. 76
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:                                                               Article 3
                                                                  Accounts,     revenue and expenditure          accounts,
       DEFINITION OF THE EUA (REMINDER) (»)                                        financial balance sheet
                                                                  The accounts shall be kept in EUA at the daily rate,
                            Article 1                             and the revenue and expenditure accounts and the
                                                                  financial balance sheet shall be presented in EUA.
                    Definition of the EUA
1.      The EUA shall be made up of the following                                          Article 4
amounts of the currencies of the Member States of
the Community:
                                                                         Commitment, recovery and payment in EUA
                  DM                    0-828
                   £ Stg                0-0885                    1.     Every proposal for commitment, every payment
                                                                  order and every recovery order shall be entered in the
                   FF                   1-15                      accounts in EUA.
                   Lit                109
                                                                  2.     A payment order made out in EUA shall be
                   Fl                   0-286
                                                                  executed by a transfer made in EUA.
                  Bfrs                  3-66
                                                                  If the beneficiary is unable or unwilling to receive or
                   Lfrs                 0-14                      keep sums in EUA, he may request the financial
                                                                  institution instructed to execute the payment order to
                   Dkr                  0-217
                                                                  convert the EUA into one of the nine currencies
                   £ Irl.               0-00759                   of the Member States.
                                                                  In such cases, the conversion shall be made by the
2.      The value of the unit of account in a given
                                                                  institution at the rate applying on the day of
 currency shall be equal to the sum of the equivalents
                                                                  execution.
 in that currency of the amounts of the currencies set
out in paragraph 1. The value shall be determined by              Any costs involved in such conversion shall be
the Commission on the basis of the exchange rates                 charged to the budget of the Communities.
 recorded each day on the exchange markets,
 according to the method published in the Official
 Journal of the European Communities.
                                                                                           Article 5
                                                                  Proposals for commitment, recovery orders and
                           SECTION I                                         payment orders in national currency
                                                                  In cases where a commitment by, or a debt to, the
      USE OF THE EUA AS AN INSTRUMENT OF                           Communities has had to be contracted in a national
                BUDGETARY MANAGEMENT                              currency, the authorizing officer shall draw up the
                                                                  proposal for commitment or the payment order or
                                                                  the recovery order in that national currency.
                            Article 2
                          Budget in EUA                                                    Article 6
 The budget shall be drawn up in European units of                Counter-value in EUA for the operations referred to
 account (EUA).                                                                           in Article 5
                                                                   In the cases referred to in Article 5:
  (*) See Article 10 of the proposal for a Council Regu-           1. The counter-value in EUA of the proposal for
      lation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) amending the Financial               commitment or of the recovery order shall be
      Regulation of 25 April 1973 applicable to the General
      Budget of the European Communities, Doc. COM(76)                 calculated by the accounts department at the rate
      210 final of 12 May 1976.                                        of the day preceding the entry in the accounts;
 ---pagebreak--- 17.11. 76                           Official Journal of the European Communities                         No C 271/7
2. The counter-value of the payment order shall be             2.    From the 1979 budget year onwards, advances
    calculated by the accounts department at the rate          under the EAGGF Guarantee Section and Food Aid
    of the day preceding the entry in the accounts.            operations shall be paid to the Member States in
    The proposal for commitment shall be corrected             EUA and expenditure incurred in national currencies
    automatically at the same rate. In the case of             shall be justified in terms of EUA.
    payments by instalments, such correction shall not
    apply to that part of the commitment which has             3.    The procedures for implementing this Article
    already been paid;                                         shall be adopted by the Commission in accordance
                                                               with the procedure laid down in Article 13 of
3. When a debt made out in a national currency is              Council Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of 21 April
    collected, the original recovery order shall, if           1970 concerning the financing of the common
    necessary, be changed on the basis of the                  agricultural policy.
    EUA/national currency exchange rate obtaining
    on the day of payment (value date). In the case of
    recovery orders executed by instalments, such
                                                                                       SECTION II
    change shall not apply to the sums already
    recovered.
                                                                  EXPRESSION IN EUA OF THE COMMUNITIES'
                                                                     FINANCIAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS
                        Article 7
                                                                                        Article 10
             Enforcement action for recovery
                                                                  Expression of amounts in EUA: General principle
If, to enable demand for payment of a debt expressed
in EUA to be made, this debt must be converted into            The Communities' financial rights and obligations
a national currency, the Commission shall make the             shall be expressed in EUA, save where otherwise
conversion at the rate applying on the day on which            provided in this Regulation.
it takes the decision to initiate enforcement action.
                                                                               STAFF AND OPERATION
                         Article 8
                                                                                        Article 11
            Entry in the accounts of imprests
                                                               Expenditure relating to persons working with the
The entry in the accounts in EUA of expenditure                                         institution
incurred against imprests shall be undertaken by the
accounting officer on a monthly basis for each                 1.    Application of the unit of account to the
budgetary item in accordance with the principles of            Communities' rights and financial obligations with
Articles 4, 5 and 6 above.                                     respect to certain categories of persons referred to in
                                                               Title 1 of the General Budget and who are working
                                                               with the institution shall be laid down in special
                         Article 9                             provisions.
                                                               2.    By way of derogation from Article 10, the
Entry in the accounts of expenditure in respect of the         Communities' rights and financial obligations with
EAGGF Guarantee Section and Food Aid operations                respect to other categories of persons referred to in
                  financed by advances                         Title 1 and Chapter 33 of the General Budget and
                                                               not mentioned in the preceding paragraph together
 1.    During the 1978 budget year, expenditure in             with similar rights and financial obligations with
respect of the EAGGF Guarantee Section and Food                respect to categories of persons referred to in Title 2
Aid operations financed by means of advances shall             of the General Budget, may be expressed in national
be paid in national currencies and entered in the              currency.
accounts on the basis of the rate applying on a
reference day to be fixed for each month.
                                                                                        Article 12
The reference rate to be applied to month 'n' shall be
the twentieth of month (n - 2).                                Expression of rights and obligations as regards
                                                                  operating expenditure, excluding supply contracts
The balances in national currencies in the Member
States shall be recalculated by the accounts                   By way of derogation from Article 10, the
department of the Commission at the reference rate              Communities' rights and financial obligations
for the following month.                                       concerning operating expenditure, excluding supply
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 271/8                          Official Journal of the European Communities                             17.11. 76
contracts, may be expressed in the national currency                        INTERVENTION OPERATIONS
of the country of the co-contractor's registered office
if:
                                                                                        Article 16
1. the co-contractor refuses to accept the EUA
    principle and if the conclusion of the contract with        Expression of     amounts in applications for, and
    this co-contractor is of special importance;                                decisions on, financial aid
2. the financial obligations are the result of external
    constraint.                                                 1.    Applications for financial aid and decisions on
                                                                such aid shall be expressed in EUA.
                                                                2.    The amounts expressed in a national currency
                         Article 13
                                                                in applications for aid shall be converted into EUA at
                                                                the rate obtaining on the date set as a deadline for
Invitations to tender in respect of supply contracts            submitting the application, where such a date has
                                                                been fixed; where no date has been fixed, the
In invitations to tender for supply contracts in the            conversion shall be made at the rate obtaining on the
countries of the Community, it shall generally be               day when the application is received by the
specified that:                                                 Commission.
— the tenders shall be submitted in EUA. If the
     tenders are submitted in a national currency, they                                 Article 17
     shall, for price comparison purposes, be
     converted into EUA at the rate applying on the             Intervention rate and refunding of costs             —
     closing day for the submission of tenders,                            Provisional closing of the accounts
 — the contracts shall be expressed in EUA,
                                                                1.     Where the present regulations fix a maximum
 — the payments arising from the contracts shall be             rate for intervention or a fixed ratio between
     made in accordance with the procedure laid down            Community intervention and intervention by another
     in Article 4 of this Regulation.                           party (Member States, beneficiaries, etc.), the
                                                                Community intervention rate shall apply to amounts
                                                                expressed in EUA when the aid is granted.
                          Article 14
                                                                2.     When the aid is paid out, and notwithstanding
                                                                Article 18 (3), the amount committed in EUA shall
                    Price revision index
                                                                 represent the upper limit of the amount to be paid;
                                                                this payment may not be higher than the maximum
 1.    For contracts expressed in EUA, the price                 rate for intervention as applied to the real effective
 revision index shall be the weighted average of the            costs.
 general national price indices or that relating to the
 sector of activity concerned.                                   Real effective costs are costs converted into EUA in
                                                                 accordance with the provisions set out in the next
                                                                 paragraph.
 2.    For contracts expressed in a national currency,
 the price revision index shall be that of the general
 prices or of the sector of activity concerned in the            3.    The beneficiary of financial aid may choose
 country in which the co-contractor has his registered           either of the two methods described below co charge
 office.                                                         expenditure incurred by him to the General Budget
                                                                 of the European Communities.
                                                                 Either, (a) the beneficiary adds an auxiliary account
                          Article IS                             in EUA to his accounts, in which case the
                                                                 expenditure incurred by the beneficiary is entered in
      Other appropriations comparable to operating               the accounts daily using the conversion rate for the
                       appropriations                            day on which the payment in question is made (bank
                                                                 values date).
 Social and education expenditure and expenditure                A provisional balance is made (in EUA) at least once
 charged to intervention appropriations classified by            a year. Any corrections to the provisional balance are
 function, objective or destination, shall be treated as         entered at the rate for the day preceding the day on
 operating appropriations if they are of the same type.          which the accounts were closed.
 ---pagebreak--- 17.11. 76                           Official Journal of the European Communities                            N o C 271/9
Or, (b) if the request for reimbursement is made in                                   SECTION III
national currency, the sum is converted into EUA at
the rate for the day on which the Commission                   ADJUSTMENT OF THE AMOUNTS EXPRESSED IN
received the application.                                      UNITS OF ACCOUNT AND IN NATIONAL CUR-
                                                               RENCIES IN THE LEGAL ACTS OF THE COM-
                                                                                       MUNITIES
                        Article 18
                                                                                        Article 20
Closing of accounts, final settling of the accounts;
cancelling     or    increasing     commitments      and                                Principles
                      appropriations
                                                               1.     In the acts adopted by the Community
1.    The accounts shall be finally closed in EUA.
                                                               institutions pursuant to the Treaties establishing the
Corrections to the final account shall be made at the
                                                               EEC and the EAEC, amounts expressed in units of
rate obtaining on the day preceding that on which
                                                               account shall, from the date when this Regulation
the account is closed.
                                                               comes into force, be taken as being expressed in
                                                               European units of account at the rate of 1 unit of
2.    If the total of payments made and still due is           account = 1 EUA. Sums expressed in national
less than the sum committed, the surplus shall be
                                                               currency shall be replaced by the equivalent in EUA
released.
                                                               at the rate obtaining on the first general quotation
                                                               day in 1978.
3.    If the total of payments already made and still
due exceeds the sum committed, the Commission                  If the acts quote both an amount in units of account
shall be in principle, absolved of its obligations as          and its equivalent in national currency, the amount in
long as total payments correspond to the total sum             units of account shall be converted into EUA at the
committed. However, the Commission may decide to               rate of 1 unit of account = 1 EUA and the reference
commit an additional sum be taking the appropriate             to the national currency shall be omitted.
measures.
                                                               2.     The forecasts in units of account contained in
But where, during the period between the date on
                                                               multiannual programmes adopted before 1 January
which the commitment was entered into and the date
                                                               1978 shall however be converted into EUA in the
on which financial aid is finally paid a currency
                                                               budgetary procedure.
 appreciates by comparison with the EUA, the
Commission shall take the appropriate measures,
                                                               3.     The amounts expressing flows or averages such
where the EAGGF Guidance Section is concerned, to
                                                                as turnovers, GNP, trade volume, etc., shall be
ensure that the intervention rate fixed at the time that
                                                               converted at a rate equivalent to the average of the
the aid was granted is maintained.
                                                               daily rates of the period.
                                                               4.     The amounts expressing outstanding liabilities
                                                               existing on a specific date, such as company capital,
                  ENTERING REVENUE                              financial reserves, etc., shall be converted at the daily
                                                                rate of that date.
                        Article 19                             5.     The principles set out in this Article shall apply
                                                               subject to the exceptions listed in the provisions
                     Entering revenue                           below and without prejudice to any special
                                                                conversion procedures which may have to be adopted
                                                                at a later date in legal acts adopted pursuant to the
 Entries on the credit side of the account as referred to       Treaties instituting the EEC and EAEC under the
 in Article 7 (1) of Regulation (EEC) N o 2/71 shall be         specific provisions on which they are based.
 made in EUA. Where own resources are established
 in national currency, they shall be converted into
 EUA at the conversion rate obtaining on the fifteenth
                                                                                        Article 21
of the month during which the sum is established.
These provisions will apply for the first time to sums                Application to the Common Customs Tariff
established during November and December 1977
 and, pursuant to Article 27 of the Financial                   1.    Notwithstanding Article 20, in conjunction with
 Regulation, these will be entered as revenue in the            Article 1 (2), the value in national currencies of the
 1978 budget.                                                   EUA applicable to the Common Customs Tariff,
 ---pagebreak---  No C 271/10                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             17.11. 76
including suspension of customs duties, tariff quotas           commitments made in previous financial years shall
and general preferences shall be calculated twice a             be entered in the accounts in EUA at the rate
year. The rates to be applied shall be those of the last        obtaining on the day before they are entered in the
day of October and April, with effect on 1 January              accounts.
 and 1 July respectively.
2.     However, the representative rates fixed for the                                 Article 25
 common agricultural policy can be applied to those
 agricultural products for which this proves necessary          Appropriations for commitment outstanding at 1
 because of the common organization of the markets.                                  January 1978
                                                                The appropriations for commitment outstanding at 1
                         Article 22                             January 1978 shall be converted into EUA under the
                                                                budgetary procedure, on the principle that their value
 Amounts in units of account fixed for the common               in the national currencies of the beneficiaries is
                     agricultural policy                        maintained when the transition is made from one
                                                                system to the other.
 The provisions of Articles 10 and 20 do not apply to
 amounts fixed for the common agricultural policy in
 units of account for agricultural products, and for                                   Article 26
 some goods which are the result of processing
 agricultural products and are governed by special               Applications for aid submitted before 1 January 1978
 rules applied under Article 235 of the Treaty, apart
 from those which are included in the Common                    1.    Applications for aid submitted before 1 January
 Customs Tariff and governed by Article 21.                     1978 whose final date for submission was also before
 These amounts are converted into national currencies           1 January 1978, and in respect of which no decision
 at the rates fixed for the common agricultural policy.         has been taken, shall be converted into EUA for the
                                                                counter-value, as at the first general quotation day in
                                                                 1978, of the amount in national currency requested.
                         Article 23
                                                                2.    Aids approved in national currencies before 1
 Transit arrangements, verification of         origin and       January 1978 shall be paid in national currencies.
                  duty-free arrangements
                                                                                       Article 27
 The detailed rules for the application of Community
 transit, verification of origin and customs and fiscal
 exemptions will be regulated separately.                       Supplementary clauses to contracts for the execution
                                                                                     of programmes
                                                                 The amounts set down in supplementary clauses to
                        SECTION IV
                                                                 contracts valid at 1 January 1978 shall be expressed
                                                                 in EUA only if the duration of the contract is
              TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS
                                                                 extended and if the financial terms relating thereto
                                                                 are amended.
                         Article 24
 Debts and commitments outstanding at 1 January                                       SECTION V
                             1978
                                                                             GENERAL FINAL PROVISIONS
  1.    Debts due to the European Communities
  originating, and commitments entered into, before 1
  January 1978 shall continue to be administered on                                     Article 28
  the same basis whether they were established in units
  of account converted into national currencies by the                            EUA conversion rates
  Commission at the rate current on the date the debts
  originated or the commitments were entered into, or             1.   The rates for conversion of the EUA into the
  whether they were established in national currencies.          different national currencies shall be available each
                                                                 day. They shall be published daily in the Official
  2.    As from the financial year 1978, the debts               Journal of the European Communities (Information
  collected and the payments outstanding against                  and Notices).
 ---pagebreak--- 17.11.76                           Official Journal of the European Communities                         No C 271/11
2.    If a rate has not been published in the Official       Financial Regulation applicable to the General
Journal in respect of a particular day or a particular        Budget of the European Communities shall be
national currency, the rate applicable for the day or         adopted in accordance with Article 118 of the
currency in question shall be that applicable on the          Financial Regulation (*).
last day for which a rate was published.
3.    'General quotation day' for the purposes of
Article 20 and 26 shall mean a day on which the
                                                                                      Article 30
counter-value of the EUA is published in respect of
the currency of each Member State.
                                                                                   Entry into force
                        Article 29
                                                              This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
                                                              1978.
              Detailed rules for application
The detailed rules for the application of this               This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
Regulation in respect of matters dealt with by the            directly applicable in all Member States.
                                                             (*) See Financial Regulation of 25 April 1973 applicable
                                                                 to the General Budget of the European Communities
                                                                 (73/91/ECSC, EEC, Euratom).