EU says successful Euro changeover in Estonia

The European Commission on Monday announced that Estonia underwent a successful Euro changeover as the dual circulation period ended last Friday.

The Commission set a deadline for a dual currency circulation period in which both the Estonian kroon and the Euro were used as citizens of the Balkan country got used to the new currency.

"This successful and smooth changeover is no coincidence. It is the result of careful preparations, in close contacts with the Commission and the ECB," said Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs.

New EU standards for common mobile phone charger

The European Commission on Wednesday welcomed the European Union harmonized standards for manufacturing mobile phones compatible with a new common charger.

The new standards were unveiled by the European Standardization Bodies CEN-CENELEC after a mandate from the European Commission which initiated a process towards a global common mobile phone charger.

"I am very happy that the European Standardization Bodies have met our request to develop within a short space of time the technical standards necessary for a common mobile phone charger based on the work done by industry," said European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani.

In June 2009, the Commission and 14 mobile phone producers agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding to harmonize chargers for data-enabled mobile phones sold in the EU. The chargers will be compatible on the basis of the Micro-USB connector.

The companies that signed the MoU were Apple, Emblaze Mobile, Huawei Technologies, LGE, Motorola Mobility, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research In Motion (RIM), Samsung, Sony Ericsson, TCT Mobile (ALCATEL), Texas Instruments and Atmel.

The harmonization is needed as incompatibility of chargers is both an inconvenience for users and an environmental problem. As users replace their current mobile phones, usually a new charger is needed which provokes the disposal of the old one.

"The common charger will make life easier for consumers, reduce waste and benefit businesses. It is a true win-win situation," added Tajani who is also Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship.

The mandate to the European Standardization organizations was issued on December 2009. It requested the development of European standards for a common charger that allow interoperability of phones from different brands.

The standards also take into account safety risks and electro-magnetic emissions in order to ensure that common chargers have sufficient immunity to external interference. The first common chargers are expected to reach the EU market in the first quarter of 2011.

ECB increases its capital

The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to increase its subscribed capital by €5 billion, from €5.76 billion to €10.76 billion, with effect from 29 December 2010. This decision was taken by the Governing Council of the ECB in accordance with the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the ECB, as well as the Council Regulation No 1009/2000 of 8 May 2000 that foresees an increase in the capital of the ECB by up to this amount.

This decision resulted from an assessment of the adequacy of statutory capital conducted in 2009. The capital increase was deemed appropriate in view of increased volatility in foreign exchange rates, interest rates and gold prices as well as credit risk. As the maximum size of the ECB’s provisions and reserves is equal to the level of its paid-up capital, this decision will allow the Governing Council to augment the provision by an amount equivalent to the capital increase, starting with the allocation of part of this year’s profits. From a longer-term perspective, the increase in capital – the first general one in 12 years – is also motivated by the need to provide an adequate capital base in a financial system that has grown considerably.

In order to smooth the transfer of capital to the ECB, the Governing Council decided that the euro area national central banks (NCBs) should pay their additional capital contributions of €3,489,575,000 in three equal annual instalments. Consequently, the current euro area NCBs will pay €1,163,191,667 as their first instalment on 29 December 2010. The remaining two instalments will be paid at the end of 2011 and 2012, respectively. Moreover, the minimal percentage of the subscribed capital, which the non-euro area NCBs are required to pay as a contribution to the operating costs of the ECB, will be reduced from 7.00% to 3.75%. The non-euro area NCBs consequently will make only minor adjustments to their capital shares, which will result in payments totalling €84,220 on 29 December 2010.

The relevant ECB decisions and legal instruments will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and on the ECB’s website in due course.

	Subscribed capital as at 28 December 2010	Paid-up capital as at 28 December 2010	Subscribed capital as at 29 December 2010	Paid-up capital as at 29 December 2010
Nationale Bank van België/ Banque Nationale de Belgique	139,730,384.68	139,730,384.68	261,010,384.68	180,157,051.35
Deutsche Bundesbank	1,090,912,027.43	1,090,912,027.43	2,037,777,027.43	1,406,533,694.10
Central Bank of Ireland	63,983,566.24	63,983,566.24	119,518,566.24	82,495,232.91
Bank of Greece	113,191,059.06	113,191,059.06	211,436,059.06	145,939,392.39
Banco de España	478,364,575.51	478,364,575.51	893,564,575.51	616,764,575.51
Banque de France	819,233,899.48	819,233,899.48	1,530,293,899.48	1,056,253,899.48
Banca d’Italia	719,885,688.14	719,885,688.14	1,344,715,688.14	928,162,354.81
Central Bank of Cyprus	7,886,333.14	7,886,333.14	14,731,333.14	10,167,999.81
Banque centrale du Luxembourg	10,063,859.75	10,063,859.75	18,798,859.75	12,975,526.42
Central Bank of Malta	3,640,732.32	3,640,732.32	6,800,732.32	4,694,065.65
De Nederlandsche Bank	229,746,339.12	229,746,339.12	429,156,339.12	296,216,339.12
Oesterreichische Nationalbank	111,854,587.70	111,854,587.70	208,939,587.70	144,216,254.37
Banco de Portugal	100,834,459.65	100,834,459.65	188,354,459.65	130,007,792.98
Banka Slovenije	18,941,025.10	18,941,025.10	35,381,025.10	24,421,025.10
Národná banka Slovenska	39,944,363.76	39,944,363.76	74,614,363.76	51,501,030.43
Suomen Pankki – Finlands Bank	72,232,820.48	72,232,820.48	134,927,820.48	93,131,153.81
Subtotal for euro area NCBs 1	4,020,445,721.55	4,020,445,721.55	7,510,020,721.55	5,183,637,388.22
Българска народна банка (Bulgarian National Bank)	50,037,026.77	3,502,591.87	93,467,026.77	3,505,013.50
Česká národní banka	83,368,161.57	5,835,771.31	155,728,161.57	5,839,806.06
Danmarks Nationalbank	85,459,278.39	5,982,149.49	159,634,278.39	5,986,285.44
Eesti Pank	10,311,567.80	721,809.75	19,261,567.80	722,308.79
Latvijas Banka	16,342,970.87	1,144,007.96	30,527,970.87	1,144,798.91
Lietuvos bankas	24,517,336.63	1,716,213.56	45,797,336.63	1,717,400.12
Magyar Nemzeti Bank	79,819,599.69	5,587,371.98	149,099,599.69	5,591,234.99
Narodowy Bank Polski	282,006,977.72	19,740,488.44	526,776,977.72	19,754,136.66
Banca Naţională a României	141,971,278.46	9,937,989.49	265,196,278.46	9,944,860.44
Sveriges Riksbank	130,087,052.56	9,106,093.68	242,997,052.56	9,112,389.47
Bank of England	836,285,430.59	58,539,980.14	1,562,145,430.59	58,580,453.65
Subtotal for non-euro area NCBs 1	1,740,206,681.03	121,814,467.67	3,250,631,681.03	121,898,688.04
Total1	5,760,652,402.58	4,142,260,189.22	10,760,652,402.58	5,305,536,076.26

 1 Owing to rounding, subtotals and totals may not correspond to the sum of all figures shown.
source: ECB