In the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER II) the Member States confirmed on February 19 the political agreement reached by the Greek EU Council Presidency on February 12 in negotiations with the European Parliament on the Proposal for a Directive protecting the Euro and other currencies against counterfeiting by criminal law. This allows reaching a first reading agreement after the formal voting in the European Parliament and in the Council.

 

The proposed Directive builds on and replaces Council Framework Decision 2000/383/JHA. Its main objective is to strengthen the protection of the Euro and other currencies against counterfeiting and to mitigate the risk of “forum shopping”. To this aim, it provides effective and deterring measures. Member States will be able to make use of effective investigative tools when combatting counterfeiting, such as those which are used in organised crime or other serious crime cases. The Directive also requires Member States to ensure that the National Analysis Centres and the National Coin Analysis Centres are also able to examine Euro counterfeits during on-going judicial proceedings, in order to enable the detection of further counterfeit Euros in circulation. Finally, according to the International Convention for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency ('Geneva Convention') and its principle of non-discrimination of other currencies foreseen in Article 5, all currencies will profit from this increased protection of the Euro.  

“Today’s political agreement in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER II) on the Directive on the protection of the Euro and other currencies against counterfeiting, a priority of the Greek Presidency in the area of criminal law, is of major importance. Euro-counterfeiting, one of the so called ‘euro-crimes’ of Article 83(1) TFEU, a particularly serious area of crime with a cross-border dimension, is a typically organized crime activity and of special concern due to the importance of the Euro throughout the European Union and worldwide. The new Directive addresses the weaknesses of the existing legal framework and constitutes a better basis to prevent, investigate and sanction euro-counterfeiting in a consistent manner throughout the Union”, said Minister of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights Charalampos Athanasiou.

 

Background:

The Euro is the single currency shared by the 18 Member States of the Euro area and in use for more than 330 million people living in this area. It is also used at a large scale in international trading transactions and serves as important reserve currency for third countries, making it the second most important international currency worldwide. The value of Euro notes circulating worldwide, almost 913 billion Euro in January 2013, is roughly the same as that of US dollar bills. 

 

The Euro is a target of organised crime groups active in the forgery of money. Counterfeiting of the Euro has led to a financial damage of at least 500 million Euro since the introduction of the single currency in 2002. Data collected in the framework of a study of the European Counterfeiting Experts Group indicate that a high number of illegal print shops were discovered in the last decade in those Member States, which have no minimum sanctions in place or only have fines for currency counterfeiting as their minimum sanctions, allowing counterfeiters to make use of “forum shopping”.