EEC on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2000)844 - Amendment of Council Directive 93/7/EEC on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member ...
document	COM(2000)844
date	June 5, 2001

(1) The establishment of Economic and Monetary Union and the changeover to the euro have an effect on the last subparagraph under heading B of the Annex to Council Directive 93/7/EEC(3) laying down the values, expressed in ecu, of the cultural goods subject to the application of the Directive. That subparagraph lays down that the date for the conversion of such values into national currencies is to be 1 January 1993.

(2) Pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 1103/97 of 17 June 1997 on certain provisions relating to the introduction of the euro(4), any reference to the ecu in legal instruments became, as from 1 January 1999, a reference to the euro, after conversion at the rate of one to one. Without an amendment to Directive 93/7/EEC, and hence to the fixed exchange rate corresponding to the rate in force on 1 January 1993, the Member States having the euro as their currency would continue to apply different amounts converted on the basis of the exchange rates of 1993, and not the conversion rates irrevocably fixed on 1 January 1999, and this situation would persist as long as the conversion rule remained an integral part of the Directive.

(3) The last subparagrah under heading B of the Annex to Directive 93/7/EEC should therefore be amended in such a way that, as from 1 January 2002, the Member States having the euro as their currency directly apply the values in euro laid down in Community legislation. For the other Member States, which will continue to convert these thresholds into national currencies, an exchange rate should be adopted on an appropriate date before 1 January 2002, and provision should be made for those Member States to adapt that rate automatically and periodically in order to compensate for variations in the exchange rate between the national currency and the euro.

(4) It would appear that the value 0 (zero) under heading B of the Annex to Directive 93/7/EEC, applicable as the financial threshold for certain categories of cultural objects, could be interpreted in such a way as to jeopardise the effective application of the Directive. Whereas this value 0 (zero) means that goods belonging to the categories in question, whatever their value - even if it is negligible or zero - are to be considered 'cultural objects' within the meaning of the Directive, certain authorities have interpreted it in such a way that the cultural object in question has no value at all, thereby depriving those categories of goods of the protection afforded by the Directive.

(5) To avoid any confusion in this respect, therefore, the figure 0 should be replaced by a clearer expression which leaves no doubt as to the need to protect the goods in question.