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Banking and investment services: Regulation on the introduction of the Euro

United Kingdom
15/05/1998
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Having decided on which Member States adopt the single currency, the Council formally adopted Regulation (EC) No. 974/98 on the introduction of the Euro. This Regulation and a Regulation adopted on 17 June 1997 set up the legal framework for the use of the Euro.

The Regulation determines the substitution of the Euro for the currencies of the participating Member States as from 1 January 1999. One Euro will be divided into one hundred cents and during the transitional period the Euro will also be divided into national currency units according to conversion rates.

The text also sets out measures which each participating Member State may take during the transitional period, notably to redenominate in the Euro unit any outstanding debt issued by the Member State's general Government in its national currency unit, and to enable the change of the unit of account of their operating procedures from the national currency unit to the Euro.

The Regulation states that as from 1 January 2002, the ECB and the Central Banks of the participating Member States will put into circulation bank notes denominated in Euro, and from this date the Euro notes and coins are legal tender. As from that same date participating Member States will issue coins denominated in Euro or in cents.

Bank notes and coins in the national currency will remain legal tender within their territorial limits up until six months after the end of the transitional period at the latest; this period may be shortened by national law.

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