Considerations on COM(2024)134 -

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dossier COM(2024)134 - .
document COM(2024)134
date March 22, 2024
 
(1) The Union has the exclusive competence for monetary and exchange rate matters as of the date of the introduction of the euro.

(2) The Union has signed a Monetary Agreement with the Principality of Andorra5 and another Monetary Agreement with the Republic of San Marino6.

(3) Following the finalisation of the negotiations in December 2023, the Union is expected to sign an Association Agreement with the Principality of Andorra and the Republic of San Marino. Under the Association Agreement and its protocol on financial services, Andorra and San Marino will progressively join the single market for financial services, which means Andorra and San Marino should transpose all the Union acquis and new legislation on combating money laundering or terrorist financing and on financial services.

(4) Both the Monetary Agreements and the Association Agreement provide for the implementation of Union legal acts by Andorra and San Marino. Those acts are listed in the Annexes to the respective Agreements.

(5) The Union legal acts on combating money laundering or terrorist financing, to be implemented pursuant to both types of agreement, are identical. In contrast, the acts on financial services overlap only partially. The acts applying under the Monetary Agreements mainly concern banking and financial law related to the supervision of financial institutions which are relevant for the euro, whereas all Union legal acts on financial services fall within the scope of the Association Agreement.

(6) The Monetary Agreements, on the one hand, and the Association Agreement, on the other, are independent of each other and have different purposes and legal bases. The legal basis of the Monetary Agreements is Article 219(3) TFEU, whereby, the Council - representing only those Member States that have changed over to the euro - acts by the default rule of qualified majority on a recommendation from the Commission and after consulting the European Central Bank. The Association Agreement is based on Article 218 TFEU, whereby, further to the consent of the European Parliament, the Council - representing all Member States - will adopt a decision concluding the agreement. Therefore, the Agreements are independent of each other, and the Monetary Agreements cannot be integrated into the Association Agreement.

(7) A mechanism should be found to address the partial overlapping of identical duties under the different agreements and ensure the smooth interaction between them. A viable and simple solution consists in amending the Monetary Agreements.

(8) A clause should be inserted into the Monetary Agreements that provides for the incorporation in the Association Agreement of all new Union legal acts on combating money laundering or terrorist financing and all new relevant Union legal acts on banking and finance relevant for the euro once those Union legal acts become applicable under the Association Agreement. The assessment of the implementation of all those acts, whether past or future, should be undertaken in the framework of the Association Agreement, and may be relevant for the application of the Monetary Agreements.

(9) Union legal acts of a monetary law nature should remain governed exclusively by the Monetary Agreements.

(10) A clause should be inserted into the Monetary Agreements to guarantee the independence of the agreements.

(11) The Union legal acts on banking and finance relevant for the euro and on combating money laundering or terrorist financing that have become part of the Association Agreement should be incorporated in the Monetary Agreements automatically if the Association Agreement is partially or fully suspended or if it is terminated.

(12) The Council is to determine the arrangements for the amendment to agreements concerning monetary or foreign exchange regime matters,