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Commission reviews Monetary Agreements with Monaco, San Marino and Vatican

Ten years after the introduction of the euro, the Commission reviewed the functioning of the Monetary Agreements which enabled Monaco, San Marino and Vatican to use the euro as official currency and to produce euro coins bearing their national symbols.
Updated 14 July 2009
In February 2009 the Council asked the Commission to review the functioning of the Monetary Agreements with Monaco, San Marino and to consider possible increases in their ceilings for euro coin issuance. The Commission Report adopted today examines in detail the content of the Agreements, describes the strengths and weaknesses in their implementation and suggests amendments to the content of the three Agreements.

>>  COM(2009)359 final. Communication from the Commission to the Council. Report on the functioning of the Monetary Agreements with Monaco, San Marino and Vatican

The Commission proposes to amend the three Agreements with a view to correcting the shortcomings in their implementation. The main objective of the revision would be:

  • To level the obligations of Monaco, San Marino and Vatican stemming from the Agreements especially with regard to the implementation of the relevant EU legislation into the national legal systems of the three countries;
  • To put in place a proper follow up mechanism for the Agreements with San Marino and Vatican which presently do not offer a platform for regular discussion on the functioning of the Agreements. The Commission therefore suggests creating two joint committees - similar to the one existing with the Principality of Monaco - with the Vatican City and the Republic of San Marino;
  • To create a safeguard clause in case of a serious and persisting shortcoming in the implementation of the Agreements. The safeguard clause would take form of the temporary suspension of the right of issuance of euro coins;
  • To give countries having signed a Monetary Agreement with the Community a possibility to freely select the Mint for the production of their euro coins. The euro coins of Monaco can now only be minted by the French national Mint while San Marino and Vatican coins can only be minted by the Mint of Italy;
  • To introduce a new uniform method for calculating the ceilings of euro coins issuance of the three countries and any country that would sign a Monetary Agreement with the Community in the future.

The report will now be submitted to the Council which shall take a decision on the follow up.

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