Commission Report to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) on authentification of euro coins and handling coins unfit for circulation

The Commission, after having analysed the annual reports received from the Member States shall present an annual report to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) on developments and results concerning authentication of euro coins and euro coins unfit for circulation according to Article 12(4) of the Regulation. The third Commission report is presented to the EFC referring to the year 2014 (18 euro-area Member States reported to the Commission) and its main purpose is to monitor the correct implementation of the Regulation based on an assessment of reports received from the Member States.

The report for the year 2014 shows the following tendencies in comparison with the Commission’s report to the EFC for the year 2013:

• An increasing number of coins is being authenticated (in 2014 over 12 billion coins were authenticated);
• The number of coins processed for the three highest denominations has increased in 2014 by 18.36%;
• The number of controls carried out by the Member States has increased as well as the number of coin-processing machines checked;
• The number of machines deemed to be compliant (successfully passing the detection test as stipulated in Article 4(1)) has increased; hence, the number of the non-compliant machines has decreased;
• The number of analysed suspect counterfeits has increased whereas the number of reimbursed unfit has decreased;
• 16 out of 18 Member States of the euro area have carried out controls of the correct implementation of the authentication obligation by the institutions referred to in Article 6 of the Council Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001.

It can be concluded that the authentication procedure in the credit institutions works in the majority of euro area Member States and therefore the objectives of the Regulation to achieve an effective and uniform authentication of euro coins throughout the euro area are progressively achieved.

Report from the Commission to the Economic and Financial Committee(84 kB)   - COM(2015)6960 and Annex(113 kB)