Amendment of legislation on the procurement of euro banknotes

Guideline ECB/2011/3 of 18 March 2011 (OJ L of 1 April 2011), amending Guideline
ECB/2004/18 of 16 September 2004,25 on the procurement of euro banknotes was issued
in compliance with the requirement to review Guideline ECB/2004/18 at the beginning of
2008 and every 2 years thereafter.
The ECB Governing Council decided on 10 July 2003 that a single Eurosystem tender
procedure should apply to the procurement of euro banknotes at the latest from 1 January
2012 onwards. Thus national central banks (NCBs) that have an inhouse printing works, or
those using a public printing works may elect not to participate in the single Eurosystem
tender procedure. In such cases, these printing works will remain responsible for the production
of the euro banknotes that have been allocated to their NCBs in accordance with
the capital key but will be excluded from participating in the single Eurosystem tender
procedure.
The expected start date of the procedure described above may be changed by a Governing
Council decision where more than half of the national central banks (NCBs) representing
more than half of the Eurosystem’s total banknote printing requirement choose not to
participate.
Given that this situation has occurred, Guideline ECB/2011/3 changes the start date of the
single Eurosystem tender procedure from 1 January 2012 to 1 January 2014, unless the
Governing Council decides on a different start date.
The Guideline came into force on 20 March 2011.