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Could 1 and 2 cent euro coins soon be scrapped?

If you hate carrying pocketfuls of the tiny one and two cent euro coins then you'll be in favour of what the European Commission is planning to do.

Published: 29 September 2020 16:00 CEST
Could 1 and 2 cent euro coins soon be scrapped?
AFP/ECDC

Brussels is considering a new rule to round off all prices to the nearest 5 cents, which would mean phasing out the small, brown one and two cent coins.

On Monday, the Commission opened a 15-week public consultation on the use of the small coins.

After consultation, the Commission will consider the possibility of putting forward a new law at the end of next year which would introduce uniform EU-wide rules for rounding off cash payments to the nearest 5 cents

“EU rules on euro coins state that the EU institutions should periodically examine the use of different denominations of euro coins in terms of costs and public acceptability,” the consultation said.

The commission “will carefully study the economic, environmental and social consequences of introducing uniform rounding rules,” it said on Monday.

Ordinary citizens and institutions are invited to share their opinions and suggestions on the issue of whether prices should be rounded off and the small coins ditched.

Citizens are invited to leave feedback on the Commission's website. A quick look at the comments suggests opinions were divided.

One commenter from France wrote: “I am in favour of removing the 1 and 2 cent coins. They are expensive to produce, to transport, and clutter up purses without providing any real service. In addition, these “small” coins seem to me all the less necessary as card and contactless payments have increased significantly (especially since the Covid epidemic).”

However another respondent summed up the views of many who though a rounding off of prices would simply mean a rounding up of prices at the expense of consumers.

“Abolishing 1 and 2 cent coins will most likely result in another rounding up of prices concerning mostly consumer goods, which will make day-to-day life even more expensive, whilst wages have not risen and are in the future unlikely to increase at the same rate,” wrote the anonymous commenter.

“Hence, the standard of living is progressively decreasing. Now that cannot possibly be, nor should it be, the aim of the European Union.”

 

Member comments

  1. No need to phase them out. Just make automated vending and coffee machines accept them.
    Very annoying that most of these don’t accept anything below the 5 cent coin.

  2. I think it’s better to abolish these two coins. One main reason to abolish it which would benefit the consumer is that there would be no more psychological pricing, instead of 99,99 it would make 100 or 99,95 . Good for us actually.

  3. …..because retailers have always put the consumer first and rounded prices down to benefit the consumer and reduced their profits, haven’t they?

  4. We had 1c and 2c coins in Australia and both coins were withdrawn from circulation in 1992 and nobody missed them. So many people now use cards anyway, so don’t see why they are needed. I generally come home with heaps of these after holidaying in Europe.

  6. When I lived in Belgium in pre-Euro days, there were far more Belgian francs than French francs per £ and the coins went down to 1/4 and 1/2 cents. Final bills were always rounded up or down, but the actual prices of goods still showed these small denominations. Only the final total was rounded, so 3 items at 4.45 would come to 13.35 and be charged as 13 francs, or at 4.85, making 14.55 would be charged as 15 francs. Seemed reasonable to me.

  7. When I lived in Belgium in pre-Euro days, there were far more Belgian francs than French francs per £ and the coins went down to 1/4 and 1/2 cents. Final bills were always rounded up or down, but the actual prices of goods still showed these small denominations. Only the final total was rounded, so 3 items at 4.45 would come to 13.35 and be charged as 13 francs, or at 4.85, making 14.55 would be charged as 15 francs. Seemed reasonable to me.

  8. They haven’t been using the 1c & 2c in Italy for quite some time now – rounding off to the nearest 5c.
    Keep up France….

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POLITICS

Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

The year 2024 is a bumper one for elections, among them the European elections in June. Italy is of course a member of the EU - so can foreign residents vote in the elections that will almost certainly affect their daily lives?

Published: 3 May 2024 15:25 CEST
Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

Across Europe, people will go to the polls in early June to select their representatives in the European Parliament, with 76 seats up for grabs in Italy. 

Although European elections usually see a much lower turnout than national elections, they are still seen as important by Italian politicians.

Giorgia Meloni will stand as a candidate this year, hoping use her personal popularity to give her Brothers of Italy party a boost and build on her success in Italy to “send the left into opposition” at the European level too.

When to vote

Across Italy, polling takes place on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June 2024.

Polling stations will be set up in the same places as for national and local elections – usually town halls, leisure centres and other public buildings.

You have to vote at the polling station for the municipality in which you are registered as a resident, which should be indicated on your electoral card.

Polling stations open at 8am and mostly close at 6pm, although some stay open later.

Unlike in presidential or local elections, there is only a single round of voting in European elections.

Who can vote? 

Italian citizens – including dual nationals – can vote in European elections, even if they don’t live in Italy. As is common for Italian domestic elections, polling booths will be set up in Italian consulates around the world to allow Italians living overseas to vote.

Non-Italian citizens who are living in Italy can only vote if they have citizenship of an EU country. So for example Irish citizens living in Italy can vote in European elections but Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc. cannot.

Brits in Italy used to be able to vote before Brexit, but now cannot – even if they have the post-Brexit carta di soggiorno.

If you have previously voted in an election in Italy – either local or European – you should still be on the electoral roll.

If not, in order to vote you need to send an application more than 90 days before the election date.

How does the election work?

The system for European elections differs from most countries’ domestic polls. MEPs are elected once every five years.

Each country is given an allocation of MEPs roughly based on population size. At present there are 705 MEPs: Germany – the country in the bloc with the largest population – has the most while the smallest number belong to Malta with just six.

Italy, like most of its EU neighbours, elects its MEPs through direct proportional representation via the ‘list’ system, so that parties gain the number of MEPs equivalent to their share of the overall vote.

So, for example, if Meloni’s party won 50 percent of the vote they would get 38 out of the total of 76 Italian seats.

Exactly who gets to be an MEP is decided in advance by the parties who publish their candidate lists in priority order. So let’s say that Meloni’s party does get that 50 percent of the vote – then the people named from 1 to 38 on their list get to be MEPs, and the people lower down on the list do not, unless a candidate (for example, Meloni) declines the seat and passes it on to the next person on the list.

In the run up to the election, the parties decide on who will be their lead candidates and these people will almost certainly be elected (though Meloni would almost definitely not take up her seat as an MEP, as this would mean resigning from office in Italy).

The further down the list a name appears, the less likely that person is to be heading to parliament.

Once in parliament, parties usually seek to maximise their influence by joining one of the ‘blocks’ made up of parties from neighbouring countries that broadly share their interests and values eg centre-left, far-right, green.

The parliament alternates between Strasbourg and Brussels. 

Find out more about voting in the European elections from Italy on the European Parliament’s website or the Italian interior ministry’s website.

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