DE: Who will print the euro notes?

[chrisild]

Euro notes issued by the German Bundesbank may soon be printed in France (by Oberthur) or the Netherlands (by Enschedé). With that decision, the Bundesbank will basically do what a few small Eurosystem central banks already do - give the print job to whichever company makes the best offer (call for tenders). According to an article in the business newspaper "Handelsblatt", the two affected German printers (Bundesdruckerei and Giesecke & Devrient), particularly the works councils, are against this new procedure. After all, in many other euro countries the banknote printing market is not exactly open ...

http://www.handelsblatt.com/finanzen/devisen/neue-banknoten-grosser-knatsch-um-den-euro;2636371
(Article in German)

Christian

[Figleaf]

Throwing it open to other contenders from within the European Union is a requirement of EU law, and there is probably an even wider requirement under the WTO government procurement code. In practice, some countries will just go through the motions and choose a national champion anyway, but the German printers would do better to complain about other markets being closed (there is a perfectly good complaint procedure for this and the competent judges are aggressively pro-opening of borders) rather than wail about their own government opening markets. In any case, tax payers win. That's not always so...

Peter

[chrisild]

As far as I know (may be wrong here), this schedule still applies:
http://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/legal/pdf/l_32020041021en00210033.pdf

So there are two possible reasons for complaints: First, the deadline is not 2011 but 2012, so there is no need to apply this system next year. Well, yes, but pretty weak. Second, no such tender procedure in some other member states. More important indeed ...

Christian