Amendment to the rules for the reproduction of euro banknotes

The Governing Council of the ECB has adopted an ECB Decision on the denominations, specifications, reproduction, exchange and withdrawal of euro banknotes (ECB/2001/7) with a view to the public release later today of the final visual appearance of the seven euro banknotes, including their security features.

Today's Decision replaces the ECB Decision of 7 July 1998 (ECB/1998/6).

Whereas two-sided reproductions were permitted in the past, the revised rules allow only one-sided reproductions to be made. The restrictions with regard to the size of any reproductions remain unchanged: they should be more than 125% or less than 75% of both the length and the width of the respective banknote.

The revised rules shall apply as from the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities, foreseen for 31 August 2001, but reproductions produced before that date will not be affected. This ECB Decision is available on the ECB's website in all 11 official Community languages already today [section: Legal documents].