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On JANUARY 1ST. 2002 THE EURO will finally be made flesh as notes and coins hit the high streets of the twelve participating countries. All the countries of the EU except the UK, Sweden and Denmark will change their currencies and the new money will also be used in Kosovo and some of the French exterior territories.
Whilst each country has its own approach to bringing in the new currency, the general timetable is the same. From September national banks in the eurozone have been minting billions of coins and notes, these have been taken to branches throughout each country. Shopkeepers can exchange national currencies for euros from the 1st. December but are not allowed to use them until the New Year although, from the 15th consumers will be able to obtain 'starter kits' of the smaller denomination coins. For a maximum of two months two currencies will be legal tender in the participating countries but after the end of February only euros will be allowed. At the end of June banks can refuse to accept the old coins and notes for exchange but central banks (i.e. the equivalents of the Bank of England) will do so indefinitely.
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Images from the Euro campaign: an Italian butcher has trouble converting prices, the new notes and Irish hoarders are exhorted to give it up. | ||
There have been many worries about how the change will affect both shoppers and retailers. In Italy, because the lira is used in such large denominations, nobody is familiar with decimal point transactions but as the euro is worth 1,900 lira buying and selling will now have to be done in cents (1/100 euro). Also the greater quantity of coins needed and the larger size bank notes mean good times for Milanese fashion houses as wallets, purses and trousers must be altered. Irish consumers have always hoarded coins and the 550 million now kept in bottles pose major problem for banks to exchange. The Irish central bank has been running a publicity campaign to get people to spend them before the changeover.
In Germany great efforts are being made by small businesses to be ready for January 1st. Banks are training shop staff and some owners are installing new stock systems which include euro pricing. As in other countries there is concern here about price rises being sneaked in under cover of the change. Just as worrying is the possibility of increased crime as the large movements of currency take place around Europe. Already thieves have stolen €260,000 from a Rome bank and the authorities say the they could be studying the notes with a view to forging them in time for January. Although the notes contain a hologram and a watermark their introduction will undoubtedly result in a period of unfamiliarity when people will be at their most vulnerable to forgeries. To be more positive, the fact that products will be priced in the same currency across Europe will make it easier to spot price differentials between countries and harder for manufacturers to maintain these. This would particularly apply to the higher prices charged in Britain if the UK were joining but the greater arguments for and against this must await future articles.
Industrial dispute resolution to go Europe - wide ? |
Euro - firms allowed under new law |
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EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER Anna Diamantopoulou set the cat among the pigeons recently with a speech on a possible future system for settling industrial disputes at EU level. She floated the idea in a speech to a Belgian presidency conference. Picking up on the recent decisions to establish a Europe-wide company statute, to enforce EU information and consultation laws and to foster corporate social responsibility (see Issues 15 and 16) she re-affirmed the EU rôle in 'strengthening and modernising relations between workers and management and ...creating tools and structures to help prevent, avoid and solve conflicts'. She promised to consult employers and unions during the next year and to avoid any compulsion. Secondly only conciliation and mediation was to be covered initially, not arbitration. Thirdly the procedure would only involve collective disputes. She saw the most likely application of any new system to be in transnational corporations including those set up under the new European company statute. |
A NEW REGULATION WAS RECENTLY adopted by the EU to allow corporations to set themselves up as European public limited liability companies (Societas Europaea, or 'SE'). Discussed for thirty years, the new measure will allow firms with interests in more than one EU Member State to establish an SE which will then be governed by Community Law obviating the need to set up separate subsidiaries following different rules in each country. The savings to existing companies in becoming SEs have been estimated at €30 billion a year. Along with the regulation a directive was adopted to govern worker involvement in the new corporations. It covers information and consultation provision and is similar in content to the existing European Works Council directive and the proposals which the European Review reported on in Issue 15. However the new measure also includes employee participation in the form of worker members on the supervisory bodies of the new companies. |
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