Article 133 [Legal Acts Concerning the Euro]

The provision dates back to Article 109.4l sentence 3 TEC-Maastricht. In this provision, the Council was empowered to irrevocably fix both the conversion rates of the currencies of the participating MS and the rate at which these currencies shall be substituted by the ECU (European currency unit, now euro), making the latter a “currency in its own right” (Article 109.4l sentence 1 TEC-Maastricht). Whilst Article 109.4l sentence 2 TEC-Maastricht made clear that this measure does not by itself modify the external value of the ECU, Article 109.4l sentence 3 TEC-Maastricht enabled the Council, through the same procedure as that under Article 109.4l sentence 1 TEC-Maastricht, to “take the other measures necessary for the rapid introduction of the ECU as the single currency of those Member States”. This context and the wording indicate that Article 109.4l sentence 3 TEC-Maastricht focused on the introduction of the currency as such at not on other aspects of the emerging EMU.