Rosa Maria Lastra analyses the division of responsibilities between the European Central Bank and the National Central Banks. Whereas responsibility for monetary policy has been transferred to the supranational level, responsibilities in the field of exchange rate policy, prudential supervision and crisis management remain at the national level.

Council Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the European Central Bank.

Consolidated version of Council Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the European Central Bank, incorporating the amendments introduced by Council Regulation (EC) No 134/2002 of 22 January 2002.

Council Regulation (EC) No 2532/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the powers of the European Central Bank to impose sanctions.

Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank.

Decision of the European Central Bank of 1 December 1998 concerning the performance by the European Central Bank of certain functions relating to medium-term financial assistance for Member States’ balances of payments.

Decision No 11875-(99/1) of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of 21 December 1998 on the observer status of the European Central Bank.

In the late summer of 1998, the ECB sets out procedures with a view to organising its relations with the financial sectors of the 11 Member States belonging to the euro-zone. Three of its decisions are described here and illustrate certain powers exercised by the ECB.

European Parliament Resolution which, within the context of enlargement, analyses the consequences of revising the institutional architecture of the European Union on the EMU institutions. It illustrates the issue of relations between the ECB and the other institutions and, in particular, the debate between independence and the democratic responsibility of the ECB.

Examination of the various legal instruments available to the European Central Bank.

Example of opinion delivered by the European Central Bank (ECB). Under the first indent of Article 105(4) of the EC Treaty, the ECB shall be consulted on any proposed Community act in its fields of competence. Accordingly, Article 105(5) of the EC Treaty stipulates that 'the ESCB shall contribute to the smooth conduct of policies pursued by the competent authorities relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions and the stability of the financial system'.

Extract from the interview with the former President of the German Central Bank, Karl Otto Pöhl, which appeared in the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel on 29 October 2001. Pöhl gives his opinion on the policies of the European Central Bank (ECB) with regard to rates and on the possibility of implementing a much broader interpretation of Article 2 of the Bank’s Statute.

This article, from Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, describes the arguments put forward by supporters and opponents of the monetary policy pursued by the European Central Bank with a view to achieving its objective: maintaining price stability.

As the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) faces ongoing criticism for his stubborn refusal to lower interest rates, the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique reports on the limits of monetary policy in a situation of economic recession.

In an interview granted to the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, Otmar Issing, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), defends the institution’s monetary policy. The ECB’s commitment to maintaining price stability represents the main contribution of monetary policy to economic growth in the medium term. Taking the view that in the long term there can be no trade-off between price stability and growth, Otmar Issing does not see any reason why the ECB should make its mandate dependent on the short-term economic situation.

On 11 May 2003, the French daily newspaper Le Monde comments on the series of measures taken by the European Central Bank to make the price stability policy more flexible and to take better account of growth.

On 30 November 2001, Christa Randzio-Plath, Chairman of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, outlines the powers of the European Parliament (EP) to monitor the activities of the European Central Bank (ECB).

The euro is the currency of account of the European Central Bank (ECB) and of the central banks of the participating Member States. Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98 of 3 May 1998 on the introduction of the euro, establishes that, with effect from 1 January 2002, the ECB and the central banks of the participating Member States place euro notes and coins into circulation. These notes and coins become the only legal tender in the Member States six months after the expiry of the transitional period at the latest.

Decision of the European Central Bank ECB/1998/6, of 7 July 1998, on the denominations, specifications, reproduction, exchange and withdrawal of euro banknotes.

Signing of the European Commission proposal on fixed euro parity rates in the Breydel Building of the Commission, followed by a joint press conference, held by the Commission and the Council in the Justus Lipsius Building of the Council, on the fixing of conversion rates between the euro and the currencies of the euro-area Member States. Jacques Santer, President of the Commission (right), and Yves-Thibault de Silguy, European Commissioner for Economic, Financial and Monetary Affairs (left), hold up the signed proposal documents.

On 31 December 1998, the Council, acting with the unanimity of the Member States without a derogation, on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Central Bank, adopts the irrevocable conversion rates for the euro, applicable from 1 January 1999.

Council Regulation (EC) No 2866/98 of 31 December 1998 on the conversion rates between the euro and the currencies of the Member States adopting the euro.

In 1998, the German cartoonist, Fritz Behrendt, depicts Wim Duisenberg, President of the European Central Bank, playing the euro as a new trump card in the European currency game.

Decision of the European Central Bank of 20 December 2001 on the approval of the volume of coin issuance in 2002.

Information poster on the change-over to the euro, issued by the European Commission. Here we can see the conversion rates for the eleven euro-zone countries, together with photos of the seven euro notes and eight euro coins including the different national designs appearing on one side of the coins.

European Commission poster publicising the change-over to the euro.

French information campaign on the change-over to the euro.

Poster published by the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland showing a table of conversion rates between the Irish pound and the euro.

Campaign in support of the euro, by the Initiative commune d'information du Gouvernement fédéral belge et de l'Union européenne [joint information initiative by the Belgian Federal Government and the European Union].

Campaign in support of the euro, by the Initiative commune d'information du Gouvernement fédéral belge et de l'Union européenne [joint information initiative by the Belgian Federal Government and the European Union].

Spanish 'euro communication campaign', by the Initiative commune du Ministère de l'Économie et des Finances et de l'Union européenne[Joint initiative by the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Finance and the European Union].

Following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, an article from Courrier Européen focuses on the pressing need to establish a European currency system that would lead ultimately to the introduction of a single currency and the setting-up of a European body responsible for coordinating monetary policies.

Information campaign on the euro - a joint initiative by the Federal Government of Germany, the European Commission and the European Parliament.

A few weeks before the entry into circulation of euro coins and banknotes on 1 January 2002, Helmut Kohl, German Chancellor from 1982 to 1998, gives his view on the historic significance of the event and the long road that has led to the achievement of this fundamental goal in European unification.

Between 19 and 22 December 2001, the 'Euro-village' exhibition - organised by the European Commission - was held in the Parc du Cinquantenaire, Brussels. The exhibition focussed on the euro information campaigns, bringing together mobile information units which, between 1999 and 2001, had been travelling throughout euro-zone countries providing information on the single currency. On 20 December 2001, days before the introduction of euro coins and notes, the commissioners visited the exhibition.

On 21 December 2001, the European Commission launched the single currency publicity campaign ‘Thalys, the euro on the move'. Until 4 February 2002, the ‘Thalys euro' travelled through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, covered in pictures of euro coins on a blue laminated background. The coins represented the notes of part of the musical score to Beethoven's 9th Symphony: Ode to Joy. The photo shows Commissioners Pascal Lamy and Pedro Solbes Mira.

On 31 December 2001, the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Pedro Solbes, take part in the 'inauguration' of the tarpaulin bearing euro colours which covers the Commission's Charlemagne building in Brussels.

On 1 January 2002, the 12 countries of the euro zone celebrate the arrival of their new currency. Political leaders are there to mark the event.

The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, the European Commissioner, Franz Fischler, and the Austrian Chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel, in Vienna on the night of 31 December 2001.

On 1 January 2002, Commissioner Pedro Solbes makes his first cash withdrawal in euros in Brussels.

On the eve of the entry into circulation of euro notes and coins on January 1, 2002, the author of the article relates the history of the single currency's birth.

Interview with Guy Quaden, Governor of the Banque nationale de Belgique (BNB), one year following the introduction of the euro. Guy Quaden gives an overview of how Europe's citizens have come to terms with the single currency during its first year of use and explains the policy of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Dans son éditorial du 10 mai 2003, le quotidien français Le Monde s’inquiète des effets négatifs pour l’économie d’un euro trop fort face au dollar et rappelle aux autorités politiques leur part de responsabilité, à côté de celle de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE), dans la direction de la politique monétaire.

Two days after the referendum on joining the single currency held in Sweden on 14 September 2003, which resulted in a ‘No’ vote, the French daily newspaper Le Monde asks five experts to give their opinion on the euro.

On 9 January 2004, the French weekly news magazine Le Point is concerned at the economic consequences of the continuous rise in value of the euro against the dollar and harshly criticises the inertia of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Finance Ministers of the 12 countries of the euro zone in the climate of commercial competition at world level.

On 16 January 2004, the French weekly news magazine Le Point considers the causes and the consequences of the rise in value of the euro against the dollar and condemns the monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB), proposing possible solutions to overcome these monetary tensions.

On 24 March 2007, in the Luxembourg daily newspaper Tageblatt, Yves Mersch, President of the Luxembourg Central Bank, explains how, in his opinion, the euro is making a tangible contribution to European integration.