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Protection of the euro against counterfeiting: extending the Pericles programme until 31 December 2013

2006/0078(CNS)

This Commission Communication relates to the evaluation of the Programme for exchange, assistance and training for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting (Pericles Programme).

The programme was established by Council Decision 2001/923/EC and extended to all EU Member States, also including those that have not adopted the euro as the single currency, by Council Decision 2001/924/EC. Subsequent amendments to these basic prolonged the duration of the programme until 31 December 2013. The programme budget is Euro 1 million per year.

This Communication accompanies the final report on the evaluation of the Pericles Programme. The evaluation exercise analysed the relevance, the European and overall value-added, as well as efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of the programme.

Conclusions: the findings and the overall results of the evaluation are very positive. Some areas for improvement have been identified with respect to efficiency and effectiveness, while it has been underlined that the sustainability of achieved results will depend significantly on the possibility to continue the programme beyond 2013.

Way forward: the Commission's proposal for a Regulation establishing an exchange, assistance and training programme for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting (the Pericles 2020 programme) and the proposal for a Council Regulation extending the application of Regulation (EU) No …/2012 establishing an exchange, assistance and training programme for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting (the Pericles 2020 programme) to the non-participating Member States, once adopted, accommodate – to a large extent – the suggestions for potential improvements. For example, these proposals include an annual reporting on the results of the Programme and clarified procedures.

The Commission will, furthermore, take the results of this evaluation into account in the framework of the implementation of the Pericles 2020 Programme through its Annual Work Programmes.