Brussels, 28/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - On proposal from Michaele Schreyer, the European Commission adopted, last Tuesday, a proposal aimed at completing the present provision to fight against Euro counterfeiting, thanks to a Community action programme covering training, exchanges and assistance. This "PERICLES" programme, which should be implemented as of 1 January 2002 for a four year period, includes: - a role of popularisation that integrates the global and multidisciplinary approach of the protection of the Euro against counterfeiting; - a role of awareness raising for the personnel concerned - notably detection services, banks, credit institutions - at the Community level of the new currency (both as a reserve currency and for international transactions); - a role of catalyst in view of facilitating, through all sorts of actions such as stages or specialised workshops, the brining together of agents concerned (personnel from the services of the police, customs and finances administrations…).
The programme notably contains information exchanges, the use of computer detection tools, the protection of personal data… It is foreseen that the ECB, Europol and Interpol, among others, will contribute their expertise. The Community financing totals EUR 4 million for the 2002/2005 period. The programme comes in addition to the existing legal and political context, including the regulation on the protection of the Euro against counterfeiting, the Commission Communication from July 1998 (priority actions in the field of the fight against counterfeiting), the exchange of letters between the ECB and Commission Presidents (April and July 1999), the extension of the Europol mandate in April 1999.