Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2009 of 18 December 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001 laying down measures necessary for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting

‘4 The ETSC shall analyse and classify every new type of counterfeit euro coin. To that end, the ETSC shall have access to the technical and statistical data stored at the ECB on counterfeit euro coins. The ETSC shall communicate the relevant final results of its analysis to the competent national authorities and, according to its areas of responsibility, to the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank shall communicate those results to Europol, in accordance with the agreement referred to in Article 3(3).’;

‘1 Credit institutions, and, within the limits of their payment activity, other payment service providers, and any other institutions engaged in the processing and distribution to the public of notes and coins, including: establishments whose activity consists in exchanging notes and coins of different currencies, such as bureaux de change, transporters of funds, other economic agents such as traders and casinos engaged on a secondary basis in the processing and distribution to the public of notes via automated teller machines (cash dispensers), within the limit of these secondary activities, shall be obliged to ensure that euro notes and coins which they have received and which they intend to put back into circulation are checked for authenticity and that counterfeits are detected. For euro notes, this check shall be carried out in line with procedures defined by the ECB . The institutions and economic agents referred to in the first subparagraph shall be obliged to withdraw from circulation all euro notes and coins received by them which they know or have sufficient reason to believe to be counterfeit. They shall immediately hand them over to the competent national authorities.

‘1a By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of paragraph 1, in Member States that do not have the euro as their single currency, checks on the authenticity of euro notes and coins shall be carried out: either by trained personnel, or by a machine for handling banknotes and coins that is on the list published by the European Central Bank, for banknotes , or by the Commission, in the case of coins .

‘3 Without prejudice to the dates fixed by the ECB for the implementation of the procedures it defines, Member States shall adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions for applying the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article by 31 December 2011 at the latest. They shall forthwith inform the Commission and the ECB thereof.’.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.