Introductory text

THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 128(1) thereof,

Having regard to the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter the Statute of the ESCB), and in particular Article 16 thereof,

Whereas:

Article 128(1) of the Treaty and Article 16 of the Statute of the ESCB provide that the European Central Bank (ECB) has the exclusive right to authorise the issue of euro banknotes within the Union. This right includes the competence to take measures to protect the integrity of euro banknotes as a means of payment.

To protect the integrity of euro banknotes and enable a proper detection of counterfeits, euro banknotes in circulation must be maintained in good condition to ensure that they can be easily and reliably checked for genuineness, and therefore euro banknotes must be checked for fitness. Furthermore, suspect counterfeit euro banknotes must be quickly detected and handed over to the competent national authorities.

Article 6 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001 of 28 June 2001 laying down measures necessary for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting^f1 originally obliged credit and other relevant institutions to withdraw from circulation all euro banknotes received by them which they know or have sufficient reason to believe to be counterfeit.

To establish harmonised standards on euro banknote recirculation, in 2005 the ECB published the banknote recycling framework which laid down common rules and procedures on authenticity and fitness checking of euro banknotes^f2, including operational standards for banknote handling machines. Subsequently, the ECB adopted common procedures for the testing of banknote handling machines by NCBs.

Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001 has been amended^f3 to the effect that the scope of its addressees has been extended and that they are now obliged to ensure that euro banknotes they have received and which they intend to put back into circulation are checked for authenticity and that counterfeits are detected. In this respect Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001 stipulates that, for euro notes, this check shall be carried out in line with the procedures defined by the ECB. It is therefore appropriate to lay down those procedures in a legal act.

Without prejudice to the Member States’ competence to establish sanctions against the institutions referred to in Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001 that fail to discharge their obligations thereunder, the Eurosystem must be able to take appropriate administrative measures to ensure that the procedures defined by the ECB are complied with and that the rules and procedures established under this Decision are not circumvented with the consequent risk of counterfeit and unfit banknotes not being detected or being put back into circulation,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: