THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 128(2) thereof,
Having regard to Decision (EU) 2015/2332 of the European Central Bank of 4 December 2015 on the procedural framework for the approval of the volume of euro coin issuance (ECB/2015/43)(1), and in particular Article 2(9) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) The European Central Bank (ECB) has the exclusive right since 1 January 1999 to approve the volume of coins issued by the Member States whose currency is the euro (hereinafter ‘euro area Member States’).
(2) The 19 euro area Member States have submitted to the ECB their requests for the approval of the volume of coins to be issued in 2021, supplemented by explanatory notes on the forecasting methodology. Certain of these euro area Member States have also provided additional information regarding circulation coins, where such information is available and considered important by the euro area Member States concerned to substantiate the approval request.
(3) As the right of euro area Member States to issue euro coins is subject to approval by the ECB of the volume of the issue, in accordance with Article 3 of Decision (EU) 2015/2332 (ECB/2015/43), the volumes approved by the ECB may not be exceeded by the euro area Member States without prior approval by the ECB.
(4) Pursuant to Article 2(9) of Decision (EU) 2015/2332 (ECB/2015/43), as no modification of the requested volume of coin issuance is required, the Executive Board is empowered to adopt this decision on the approval requests for the volume of coin issuance in 2021 submitted by euro area Member States,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: