The European Commission wants to ensure that fees for cross-border payments are reduced, including in Member States that do not yet have the euro.

AD – 04/2018

‘If we want the euro to unite rather than divide our continent, then it should be more than the currency of a select group of countries. The euro is meant to be the single currency of the European Union as a whole’, said Commission President Juncker in his State of the Union Address on 13 September 2017. 

 

Since expansion of the monetary union (‘the euro for all’) can only be really achieved in the medium and long term, the EU Commission has instead identified key areas where they can score in the short term with a ‘value-added euro’. One of these options was taken up by the EU Commission on 28 March 2018 when it published its proposal for a Regulation (COM/2018/163), which seeks to amend Regulation (EC) No 924/2009. 

Regulation (EC) No 924/2009 equalised fees for cross-border payments in euro within the Union with payments in euro-area Member States. Citizens and businesses in non-euro area Member States do not yet benefit from the Regulation because domestic euro payments are either very expensive or are not permitted. 

 

The proposed amendment wants cross-border payments in euro to be charged in the same amount as corresponding domestic payments in the non-euro national currency. 

 

The Commission states that the proposal will contribute to the better functioning of the Single Market, for example in cross-border online trade, and the medium-term expansion of the Economic and Monetary Union. 

 

The proposal for a Regulation can be read here