000 pages of community law provisions which, among many other areas, include legislation on the euro as well. it will be interesting to see how the accession countries enrich europe ’ s legal landscape. when implementing the community ’ s acquis they may, on the one hand, profit from already well established structures, which could lead to a fairly high level of harmonisation. however, taking into account the cultural diversity of the countries concerned, considerable legal differences may, perhaps, not be ruled out. in any case, the accession countries will have to make their ncbs independent and accommodate the integration of their ncbs in the eurosystem. it is important to note that accession to the eu and the introduction of the euro will, in all likelihood, not coincide. from the ecb ’ s perspective, it is furthermore important that the legislation of the accession countries in the areas of banking, securities markets, payment and settlement systems and collateral is made compatible with eu standards. after all, under the rules of the single financial passport, membership of the eu implies for financial institutions in the accession countries that they may obtain access to eurosystem facilities such as monetary policy operations and payment systems. this is a daunting task for the accession countries and the ecb stands ready to assist them, in close cooperation of course with all the other eu authorities involved and in particular with the commission. indeed, the ecb has built up extensive experience in delivering opinions on draft legislation in its field of competence where the community and national legislators have to consult the ecb. it goes without saying that the accession countries may profit from the ecb ’ s experience in this field. all in all, the birth of the euro has triggered tremendous legal activity, not only for legislators specifically, but also for market participants generally. i am happy, and frankly also proud, that such activity has been successful. the escb ’ s regulatory framework is an important step towards legal convergence in europe and has proved to function well. moreover, i am not aware of any legal derailments resulting from the introduction of the euro. an interesting example of the lack of legal problems is the continuity of those contracts in which monetary obligations are denominated in currencies which are now sub - units of the euro. the continuity of such contracts after the introduction of the euro inside and outside the eu was the subject of extensive legal studies. however, in the end, and perhaps also as a result of a provision in the eu council

willem f duisenberg : the euro as a catalyst for legal convergence in europe speech by dr willem f duisenberg, president of the european central bank, on the occasion of the annual conference of the international bar association, held in amsterdam, on 17 september 2000. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to deliver today the opening speech of the annual conference of the international bar association here in amsterdam. the netherlands is, of course, well - known for its national folklore of which you just witnessed an example. however, in legal circles this country is also known as the birthplace, in the year 1583, of the founding father of the modern law of nations and a truly european citizen : hugo de groot or, by his latin name, grotius. interestingly, grotius already dealt in his days with the challenging question as to where, on the one hand, unification of law across borders is desirable and where, on the other hand, national differences, often based on cultural diversity, stand in the way of such unification. nowadays, this is still one of the core questions in the creation and further elaboration of a new corpus iuris monetae for the euro. i shall enter into the details of this new body of monetary and financial law later. let me first highlight some historic events for those of you who have come from afar and may, thus, be less acquainted with the main features of economic and monetary union. as a crown on the internal market of the european union ( eu ), the euro came into existence on 1 january 1999. this occurred through the irrevocable fixing of the exchange rates of the currencies of those 11 eu member states which qualified not only economically, but also legally, for the adoption of the euro. these member states are : austria, belgium, finland, france, germany, ireland, italy, luxembourg, the netherlands, portugal and spain. greece will adopt the euro as from 1 january 2001, while denmark will hold a referendum on the adoption of the euro on 28 september 2000. sweden and the united kingdom did not introduce the euro in their respective countries, but this may change, of course, in the future. the birth of the euro was preceded, on 1 june 1998, by the establishment of the ecb, the european system of central banks ( escb ) and the eurosystem. the escb is composed of the ecb and the 15 national central banks ( nc