Article 1 Purpose
1. The purpose of this Regulation is to lay down measures necessary with a view to uttering euro notes and coins in such a manner as to protect them against counterfeiting. 3. This Regulation shall apply, without prejudice to the application of national criminal law, to the protection of the euro against counterfeiting.
Article 2 Definitions
Within the meaning of this Regulation: (a) ‘counterfeit notes’ and ‘counterfeit coins’ shall mean notes and coins denominated in euro or which have the appearance of euro notes or coins and which have been fraudulently made or altered; (b) ‘competent national authorities’ shall mean the authorities designated by the Member States for: — identifying counterfeit notes and coins; — gathering and analysing technical and statistical data relating to counterfeit notes, in particular national central banks or other empowered bodies; — gathering and analysing technical and statistical data relating to counterfeit coins, in particular national mints, national central banks or other empowered bodies; — gathering data relating to counterfeiting of the euro and submitting them to analysis, in particular the national central offices referred to in Article 12 of the Geneva Convention; (d) ‘technical and statistical data’ shall mean data by means of which counterfeit notes or counterfeit coins may be identified (technical description of type of counterfeit) and data on the number of counterfeit notes and counterfeit coins by their origin, in particular geographical; (e) ‘Geneva Convention’ shall mean the International Convention for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency, signed at Geneva on 20 April 1929 ( 10 ); (f) ‘Europol Convention’ shall mean the Convention of 26 July 1995 on the establishment of Europol ( 11 ); (g) ‘payment service providers’ shall mean the payment service providers referred to in Article 1(1) of Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal market ( 12 ).
Article 3 Gathering and access
1. Technical and statistical data relating to counterfeit notes and counterfeit coins discovered in the Member States shall be gathered and indexed by the competent national authorities. These data shall be communicated to the European Central Bank for storage and processing. 2. The European Central Bank shall gather and store technical and statistical data relating to counterfeit notes and counterfeit coins discovered in non-member countries. 3. The competent national authorities and, within its areas of responsibility, the Commission, shall have access to the technical and statistical data held by the European Central Bank. Europol shall have access to such data under an agreement between it and the European Central Bank in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Europol Convention and the provisions adopted on the basis of the latter.
Article 4 Obligation to transmit counterfeit notes
1. In agreement with the European Central Bank, Member States shall designate or establish a National Analysis Centre (NAC) in accordance with their national law and practice. 2. The competent national authorities shall permit the examination by the NAC of suspected counterfeit notes and shall without delay provide it with the necessary examples requested by the NAC of each type of suspected counterfeit note for analysis and identification and such technical and statistical data as are in their possession. The NAC shall send the European Central Bank every new type of suspected counterfeit note corresponding to the criteria adopted by the European Central Bank. For the purpose of facilitating the checking for authenticity of circulating euro notes, the transporting of counterfeit notes between the competent national authorities as well as the institutions and bodies of the European Union shall be permitted. During transportation, the counterfeit notes shall be accompanied at all times by transport orders received for that purpose from the abovementioned authorities, institutions and bodies. 3. Paragraph 2 shall be applied in such a way that it does not prevent suspected counterfeit notes from being used or retained as evidence in criminal proceedings. The competent national authorities may however transmit to the NAC, and, where appropriate, to the ECB, part of a batch of these notes for examination or testing. 4. The European Central Bank shall communicate the relevant final results of its analysis and classification of every new type of counterfeit note to the competent national authorities and, according to its areas of responsibility, to the Commission. The European Central Bank shall communicate the results to Europol, in accordance with the agreement referred to in Article 3(3).
Article 5 Obligation to transmit counterfeit coins
1. Member States shall designate or establish a Coin National Analysis Centre (CNAC) in accordance with their national law and practice. 2. The competent national authorities shall permit the examination by the CNAC of suspected counterfeit coins and shall without delay provide the necessary examples requested by the CNAC of each type of suspected counterfeit coin for analysis and identification and such technical and statistical data as are in their possession. The CNAC shall send the European Technical and Scientific Centre (ETSC) every new type of suspected counterfeit coin corresponding to the criteria adopted by the European Technical and Scientific Centre; to that end the European Central Bank shall provide the CNAC with such technical and statistical data relating to counterfeit euro coins as are in its possession. For the purpose of facilitating the checking for authenticity of circulating euro coins, the transporting of counterfeit coins between the competent national authorities as well as the institutions and bodies of the European Union shall be permitted. During transportation, the counterfeit coins shall be accompanied at all times by transport orders received for that purpose from the abovementioned authorities, institutions and bodies. 3. Paragraph 2 shall be applied in such a way that it does not prevent suspected counterfeit coins from being used or retained as evidence in criminal proceedings. The competent national authorities may however transmit to the CNAC, and, where appropriate, to the ETSC, part of a batch of these coins for examination or testing. 4. The ETSC shall analyse and classify every new type of counterfeit euro coin. To that end, the ETSC shall have access to the technical and statistical data stored at the ECB on counterfeit euro coins. The ETSC shall communicate the relevant final results of its analysis to the competent national authorities and, according to its areas of responsibility, to the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank shall communicate those results to Europol, in accordance with the agreement referred to in Article 3(3).
Article 6 Obligations relating to credit institutions engaged in the processing and distribution to the public of notes and coins
1. Credit institutions, and, within the limits of their payment activity, other payment service providers, and any other institutions engaged in the processing and distribution to the public of notes and coins, including: — establishments whose activity consists in exchanging notes and coins of different currencies, such as bureaux de change, — transporters of funds, — other economic agents such as traders and casinos engaged on a secondary basis in the processing and distribution to the public of notes via automated teller machines (cash dispensers), within the limit of these secondary activities, shall be obliged to ensure that euro notes and coins which they have received and which they intend to put back into circulation are checked for authenticity and that counterfeits are detected. For euro notes, this check shall be carried out in line with procedures defined by the ECB ( 13 ). The institutions and economic agents referred to in the first subparagraph shall be obliged to withdraw from circulation all euro notes and coins received by them which they know or have sufficient reason to believe to be counterfeit. They shall immediately hand them over to the competent national authorities. 1a By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of paragraph 1, in Member States that do not have the euro as their single currency, checks on the authenticity of euro notes and coins shall be carried out: — either by trained personnel, — or by a machine for handling banknotes and coins that is on the list published by the European Central Bank, for banknotes ( 14 ) , or by the Commission, in the case of coins ( 15 ). 2. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the establishments referred to in paragraph 1 which fail to discharge their obligations under the said paragraph are subject to effective, proportionate and deterrent sanctions. 3. Without prejudice to the dates fixed by the ECB for the implementation of the procedures it defines, Member States shall adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions for applying the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article by 31 December 2011 at the latest. They shall forthwith inform the Commission and the ECB thereof.
Article 7 Cooperation to protect the euro against counterfeiting
1. With a view to effective protection of the euro against counterfeiting, the Member States, the Commission and the European Central Bank shall cooperate, on the one hand, with each other, and, on the other hand, with Europol in accordance with the Europol Convention and with the provisions adopted on the basis of the latter. To that end the Commission and the European Central Bank shall negotiate with a view to the conclusion in due course of an agreement with Europol. 2. In particular, the competent national authorities, the Commission and the European Central Bank, in the performance of their respective tasks, shall cooperate in: — exchanging information on preventing counterfeiting and combating the uttering of counterfeit notes and counterfeit coins; — providing regular information on the impact of counterfeiting for the purposes of strategic analysis; — ensuring mutual assistance in preventing counterfeiting and combating the uttering of counterfeit notes and counterfeit coins, which shall include, inter alia , scientific support and training with the logistical support of the Member States. 3. Within the framework of mutual assistance, the national central offices referred to in Article 12 of the Geneva Convention and the European Central Bank and, where necessary, the Commission shall, within the framework of their respective powers and without prejudice to the role of Europol, make provision for a system for the communication of technical data (early warning).
Article 8 Centralisation of information at national level
1. Member States shall ensure that, as soon as any case of counterfeiting is detected, information at national level is communicated to the national central office with a view to its being forwarded to Europol through the Europol national unit. 2. Member States shall take all measures necessary to ensure the exchange of information between the national central office and the Europol national unit.
Article 9 External relations
1. The Commission and the Member States shall cooperate with non-member countries and international organisations in close association with the European Central Bank. Such cooperation shall include the assistance necessary to prevent and combat counterfeiting of the euro, in accordance with the provisions relating to the prevention of unlawful activities contained in cooperation, association and pre-accession agreements. 2. The Council shall ensure that cooperation, association and pre-accession agreements between the European Community and non-member countries include provisions enabling Article 3(2) to be applied.
Article 10 Competent national authorities
1. Member States shall send the European Central Bank and the Commission a list of the competent national authorities referred to in Article 2(b). 2. Those lists shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities .
Article 11 Unauthorised notes
As far as possible the provisions laid down in Articles 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9 shall apply to notes denominated in euro which have been produced with the use of lawful facilities or equipment in violation of the provisions in accordance with which the competent authorities may issue currency, or uttered in violation of the conditions in accordance with which the competent authorities may utter currency and without the consent of those authorities.
Article 12 Applicability
Articles 1 to 11 shall have effect in those Member States which have adopted the euro as their single currency.
Article 13 Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities . It shall apply from 1 January 2002. However, it shall apply from the date of its publication to notes and coins which have not yet been issued but which it is intended to issue.