The Commission presents a report on the application of Regulation (EU) No 1210/2010 concerning authentication of euro coins and handling of euro coins unfit for circulation.
The report recalls the broad objectives objective of the Regulation to ensure effective and uniform authentication of euro coins throughout the euro area by providing binding rules for the implementation of common procedures for the authentication of euro coins in circulation as well as for implementation of control mechanism of the authentication procedures by the national authorities.
The Regulation stipulates that the authentication obligation shall be implemented by means of coin-processing machines or by trained personnel. Following the authentication procedure all suspected counterfeit coins and coins unfit for circulation are to be sent to the Coin National Analysis Centre or another authority designated by the Member State concerned. The Regulation sets out the testing requirements for the coin-processing machines, rules for handling coins unfit for circulation as well as control mechanisms to be put in place by Member States to make sure the institutions are fulfilling their authentication obligation.
Purpose of the report: the Commission presents a report on developments and results concerning authentication of euro coins and euro coins unfit for circulation.
This is the first time the Commission has prepared such an annual report since the Regulation has been applicable since 1 January 2012. It covers the year 2012.
Main conclusions: to present the report, the Commission relied on the reports prepared by the Member States themselves. However, since not all the reports have been received, the Commission will take the necessary steps to remind the Member States of the Euro-zone area of the obligation to timely comply with the requirements under Regulation 1210/2010.
Based on the information reported, it can be concluded that the authentication procedure in the ‘institutions’ seems to be in place in the majority of euro area Member States and that 12 out of 17 Member States of the euro area carry out controls of the correct implementation of the authentication obligation by the ‘institutions’ referred to in Article 6 of Regulation 1338/2001.
However, a further fine-tuning of the reporting obligation by Member States is necessary to allow the Commission to draw up a comprehensive picture of the authentication procedures put in place in Member States. The reports from Member States do not reach the desired level of completeness and homogeneity necessary for a detailed assessment by the Commission.
Further harmonisation and improvement of the reporting will be discussed in the framework of the existing experts group (Counterfeit Coins Experts Group) and will be detailed in the European Technical and Scientific Centre (ETSC) Guidelines in view of future reports.