Background

  1. piece of 1 EuroThe collaboration between the EBU and the European Commission started in 1993 already. In november 1995, EBU was able to issue, with support of the HELIOS programme, recommendations concerning the design of future euro notes and coins, which would make them easier to identify and to use for blind and partially sighted people: Currency design for visually impaired people - Recommendations for the design and implementation of a single European currency.

  2. Thanks to the European Commission Directorate General for Consumer policy and consumer health protection and under the leadership of Stephen King, RNIB, the EBU Euro group has been working with the European Monetary Institute and the Working Group of the Mint Directors in the creation of 7 new notes and 8 new coins, to ensure that their identification features were suitable for all European Union blind and partially sighted citizens.

  3. A project was then developed with the European Commission Directorate-General for the Consumers until June 1998. Its objective was to identify the special information needs of visually impaired people concerning the euro. It also involved the establishement of a network of euro co-ordinators from organisations of an