§ Mr. Gouldasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer under what provision of the Treaty of Rome it would be possible for the proposed European monetary system to be operated by the European Commission out of funds contributed by all member States.
§ Mr. HealeyA draft Council regulation made under article 235 of the Treaty empowers the European Monetary Cooperation Fund to receive reserve assets from member States and to issue European currency units (ECU) against them. These ECUs would be usable by the monetary authorities of member States for settlement between themselves and with the European Monetary Cooperation Fund. This draft regulation had been sent to the Council under R/2790/1/78. It has been deposited with the scrutiny committee and recommended for debate.
There is no proposal that the European Commission should have access to the reserves received by the EMCF or that it should operate the exchange rate arrangements of the European monetary system.