19. 6. 97 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 162/1 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1103/97 of 17 June 1997 on certain provisions relating to the introduction of the euro THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 235 thereof, Having regard to the proposal of the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the European Par- liament (3), Having regard to the opinion of the European Monetary Institute (3), (1) Whereas, at its meeting held in Madrid on 15 and @ 16 December 1995, the European Council confirmed that the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union will start on 1 January 1999 as laid down in Article 109j (4) of the Treaty; whereas the Member States which will adopt the euro as the single currency in accordance with the Treaty will be defined for the purposes of this Regulation as the ‘participating Member States’; Whereas, at the meeting of the European Council in Madrid, the decision was taken that the term ‘ECU’ used by the Treaty to refer to the European currency unit is a generic term; whereas the Governments of the fifteen Member States have achieved the common agreement that this decision is the agreed and definitive interpretation of the relevant Treaty provisions; whereas the name given to the European currency shall be the ‘euro’; whereas the euro as the currency of the participating Member States will be divided into one hundred sub-units with the name ‘cent’; whereas the European Council furthermore considered that the name of the single currency must be the same in all the official languages of the Euro- pean Union, taking into account the existence of different alphabets; () OJ No C 369, 7. 12. 1996, p. 8. () O] No C 380, 16. 12. 1996, p. 49. (") Opinion delivered on 29 November 1996. (3) Whereas a Regulation on the introduction of the euro will be adopted by the Council on the basis of the third sentence of Article 1091 (4) of the Treaty as soon as the participating Member States are known in order to define the legal framework of the euro; whereas the Council, when acting at the starting date of the third stage in accordance with the first sentence of Article 1091 (4) of the Treaty, shall adopt the irrevocably fixed conversion rates; (4) Whereas it is necessary, in the course of the opera- tion of the common market and for the changeover to the single currency, to provide legal certainty for citizens and firms in all Member States on certain provisions relating to the introduction of the euro well before the entry into the third stage; whereas this legal certainty at an early stage will allow pre- parations by citizens and firms to proceed under good conditions; (5) Whereas the third sentence of Article 1091 (4) of the Treaty, which allows the Council, acting with the unanimity of participating Member States, to take other measures necessary for the rapid introduction of the single currency is available as a legal basis only when it has been confirmed, in accordance with Article 109j (4) of the Treaty, which Member States fulfil the necessary conditions for the adoption of a single currency; whereas it is therefore necessary to have recourse to Article 235 of the Treaty as a legal basis for those provisions where there is an urgent need for legal certainty; whereas therefore this Regu- lation and the aforesaid Regulation on the introduc- tion of the euro will together provide the legal framework for the euro, the principles of which legal framework were agreed by the European Council in Madrid; whereas the introduction of the euro concerns day-to-day operations of the whole popula- tion in participating Member States; whereas measures other than those in this Regulation and in the Regulation which will be adopted under the third sentence of Article 1091 (4) of the Treaty should be examined to ensure a balanced changeover, in particular for consumers;