Frankfurt, 05/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, the European Central Bank announces that it has decided to conduct a liquidity-absorbing fine-tuning operation, on Wednesday, for a total of some 35 billion euro. The operation took the form of a collection of fixed-term deposits processed as a quick tender procedure at variable rates. The ECB stipulates that, "transition to the year 2000 having "gone smoothly" (see yesterday's EUROPE, page 7), it considers it appropriate, now, to adjust the liquidity situation accordingly. The prevailing, liquidity situation, says the press release, "reflects the ECB's commitment to prevent liquidity constraints from occurring during transition to the year 2000, as well as the substantial expansion of liquidity provided by autonomous factors at the beginning of the year". The next refinancing operation will come on 12 January.