Brussels, 20/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has set up a rapid information network or Changeover Information Network (CIN) for the changeover to the euro. A team at the Commission is preparing a constant sharing of information between the major stakeholders and will draw up regular reports on now operations are progressing. If necessary, it will also prepare common position reports for the ministers to be discussed by the Economic and Financial Committee (Treasury Directors and representatives of the national central banks).
Based on the information put together by the CIN team, Commissioner Pedro Solbes and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs will follow the changeover to the euro on a daily basis as from 30 December 2001. The CIN will be the main co-ordinating structure and will receive information to this end from three different networks: 1) the CIN which is a focal point between the monitoring cells of the different finance ministries, the European Commission and the ECB. The data will be put on a secure intranet site accessible to all participating groups. 2) The European Quick Alert Network (EQAN) which is a grouping of contact points from the private sector. It includes a banking section of around 20 big European banks and three national banking federations; and a "supermarket" section of the big European names from the participating Member States. 3) The network of Commission bureaux which analyse information in the media (broadcasting and newspapers).
The cell will receive information from both the CIN and the EQAN on a daily basis throughout the first three weeks of January, and then twice-weekly until the end of the double circulation period. Using the information it collects during the day, the unit will publish a public report (including on bank holidays) on the internet (http: //europa.eu.int/comm/press_room). Reports will be made available on 31 December concerning frontloading operations and progress in physically supplying notes and coins from 2 to 30 January and then from 6 to 27 February. The last report will be issued on 1 March. The main areas to be covered in the public report are the general situation (for example, the percentage of money withdrawn in national currencies) euro payments in supermarkets and the ATM situation); the situation in the banking sector - what proportion of automatic tellers have been changed to euro, changes in the volumes of coins and notes withdrawn over the counter or from cash machines; counterfeit coinage and notes; queues; etc. and the situation in shops (problems with price labelling, managing queues, and the like). Saving exceptional situations, the public report will give a general assessment of the situation across the eurozone rather than by country. The Commission will publish a general balance sheet of preparations for the changeover to the euro and the actual physical introduction of the currency in a Communication to the Council in the first quarter of 2002.