Strasbourg, 22/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - By following its rapporteur, the German Social Democrat Gerhard Schmid, the European Parliament last week approved two decisions from the Council, setting out, on the one hand, an action programme for the protection of the Euro against counterfeiting (PERICLES programme) and widening, on the other hand, the effects of this decision to the Member States that have not adopted the Euro as a single currency.
The Parliament approves this decision, not only to defend the Euro, but also because counterfeiting practised on a grand scale frequently masks "organised structures": thus it is good to act energetically to deprive organised crime of this source of revenue. Nevertheless, the Parliament adopted a whole series of amendments to limit a programme that seems to be excessively ambitious under its present form, and especially costly. Thus it feels that it is pointless to spend money to raise awareness of those at the national level responsible for the fight against counterfeiting, already insufficiently informed, and that it is wrong to ask for a contribution towards the costs from third countries that are not in a an economically difficult position (such as, for example, the former Yugoslavia), where the national currencies of the Member States are de facto a means of payment and will be seemingly replaced by the Euro. It is especially necessary, according to the Parliament, to properly target the programme, by limiting it to persons susceptible of having a role of multiplier. According to the EP, the creation of a specific budget for this multi-annual programme (from 2002 to 2005), with a reference amount of EUR 4 million, seems appropriate.