The Legal Regulation of the European Currency Unit

Abstract

EVEN though neither economic and monetary union, nor the concomitant immutable parity rates or sole Community currency envisaged 17 years ago by the Werner Committee,' have yet been achieved, nevertheless the European Communities have from the outset required their accounting unit, quite apart from the pivotal role of the modern European Currency Unit (ECU) in the European Monetary System. The problem was recognised in the old Coal and Steel High Authority's Decision No.2 of 13 December 19522 dealing with the levy payable under that Treaty. Article 50(2) of the Coal and Steel Treaty provided that the levies should be assessed annually on the relevant products according to their average value, and what the High Authority decided to do was in fact to fix a levy in units of account, these being units of account of the European Payments Union established in 1950. The effect, at least in theory, of using the unit of account was that the High Authority could fix a flat-rate levy which should be the same in real terms irrespective of where in the Community the products originated, and irrespective of the currency used in any actual transaction. The levy under Article 50(2) of the Coal and Steel Treaty was, of course, intended as the own resource of the coal and steel budget, and the budget of the European Communities which we now have, and which in fact excludes the coal and steel operational budget,3 is itself always drafted in terms of units of account.4 Indeed, units of account are used not only in the budget itself, but also in relation to funds falling outside the scope of the budget as such. So, for example, successive European development funds, created originally for the benefit of those countries associated with the Community under Article 131 of the EEC Treaty, with subsequent European development funds being created for the