1.99 euros - a classic price in German stores. Soon, however, the stores could withhold the cent instead of handing it over. The EU Commission is considering an important change in terms of cash.
- The familiar picture in the coin pocket of the wallet could soon change in the euro zone.
- The EU Commission is apparently considering abolishing the smallest cent coins.
- The CSU fears an “entry into the exit” from the cash behind the advance.
Update from February 2, 9:05 pm: According to a newspaper report, there is a lot of encouragement in the Bundestag for the planned abolition of one-cent and two-cent coins . This was found in a survey among the politicians of the parliamentary groups, reported the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .
For the Union, the finance politician Antje Tillmann (CDU) praised the project of the EU Commission. "We can do without one-cent and two-cent coins, but of course not with our cash," she told the FAS . Because many people pay cashless, the cost of minting the coins is greater than their benefits. Abolition would therefore be "consistent".
The spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Lothar Binding, said that "handling cash" must "be as efficient as possible". Therefore, "abolition should be considered".
Greens faction deputy Oliver Krischer called the minting of almost one billion one and two cent coins annually a "huge, unnecessary and expensive waste of resources". After a few years, all of these coins "disappeared into some kind of drawer". In fact, according to the EU Commission, every euro area citizen owns an average of 181 of these coins - and the trend is rising.
The FDP, AfD and Left Party are against the abolition of small coins. FDP politician Otto Fricke called the plan "risky". There is a danger of a "creeping end of cash", but this is "marked freedom for the individual and social cement in the interpersonal".
Update of January 29, 3:03 p.m .: The discussions of the EU Commission about the abolition of the cent coins seem to be going nowhere. Before abolition, one wants to examine possible consequences exactly, it is said on Wednesday afternoon. Nothing has been decided yet, said Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic in Brussels on Wednesday. Uniform rules are particularly important for rounding at crooked prices in retail. Individual EU countries have already introduced such rounding rules independently.
In the Netherlands, for example, copper money had never been used anyway. Instead of circulating the small Eurocent coins , prices were rounded up or down mathematically. On average, this should not result in a loss for citizens, according to popular opinion. The rest of Europe did not miss the cent-exact settlement. Now it could be over soon. In addition to the Netherlands, Finland and Ireland have stopped issuing one and two euro cent coins .
Mini-coins are to be abolished: Bundesbank chairman with urgent warning
Update of January 29, 2020: Not so long ago, Germany 's approval for the abolition of one to two cent coins was greater than ever. According to the Eurobarometer 2018, around 60 percent of Germans spoke out in favor of the abolition. In previous surveys, the majority of Germans had stuck to the copper money. Criticism now comes from another side: Bundesbank board member Johannes Beermann is in favor of receiving the cent coins: “There are enough people who have to pay attention to every cent. It is a question of appreciation. ”That reports Bild.de.
"The Germans love cash," claims Beermann and appeals to the decision-makers: "As long as retailers keep prices up to 99 or 98 cents, for example, you should keep the small money."
The parliamentary managing director of the CSU regional group, Stefan Müller (CSU), has objections and fears that "the abolition of small coins would be the first step towards abolishing cash". The Bild newspaper says Müller: “Only cash is true. So we want cash to continue. ”
Small cent coins: EU Commission plans to make drastic changes to cash
Brussels - Will there soon be more space in the coin pocket of the wallet? According to a report, the EU Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) is planning a drastic change in terms of cash : the abolition of one and two cent coins .
The reform is part of a work program of the Commission , which will be presented on Wednesday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung writes in its Tuesday edition. We are talking about a "proposal for uniform rounding rules" with the aim of eliminating the smallest coins.
Cent coins soon past? CSU strongly warns of "getting into the exit"
The quite serious advance can be found very modestly under point 43 in a list of " initiatives to reduce bureaucracy ", it says. Reference is made to a report from the Commission in 2018, according to which more and more countries with the European common currency have switched to rounding amounts to a full five cents when shopping.
This saves the manufacturing costs for one and two cent coins, the effort of counting and transport, the newspaper further quoted from the report. Annual surveys by the Commission had also shown that "today no country has a majority to maintain these two denominations".
The CSU immediately issued a drastic warning. "What the Commission plans to do under the harmless name of 'uniform rounding rules' must ring the alarm bells," said Markus Ferber, MEP to the SZ. "The entry into the cash exit should never be prepared here."
EU Commission thinks out of small cent coins - in fact, in some places they have already disappeared
In some places in the EU rounding small amounts of cents is actually already common - for example in Holland, Italy and Finland. Belgium did not join until the end of 2019. Here, too, the one and two cent coins are official means of payment until the EU decides otherwise. According to a report by the Frankfurter Rundschau *, the euro countries issued around 3.6 billion copies of the smallest two cent coins in 2016 and 2017 alone.
Other European countries have long since abolished their smallest coin units . In Sweden, for example, the smallest coin in circulation is the 1-krone piece - its value corresponds approximately to a 10-cent coin. There is also a strange side note from Germany: on a North Sea island, the very small coins are already in short supply.
Video: Italy abolishes one and two cent coins.
Also interesting: If your 1 cent coin has this detail, it is worth a huge sum of money.
AFP / fn
* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.