ph 3. In that case, by way of derogation
from Articles 148 and 189a(1), a qualified majority shall be defined as
two thirds of the votes of the representatives of the Member States
without derogation weighted in accordance with Article 148(2), and
unanimity of those Member States shall be required for an act
requiring unanimity.
6. Articles 109h and 109i shall continue to apply to a Member State
with a derogation.
ARTICLE 109l
1. Immediately after the decision on the date for the beginning of the
third stage has been taken in accordance with Article 109j(3), or, as the
case may be, immediately after 1 July 1998:
- the Council shall adopt the provisions referred to in Article 106(6);
- the governments of the Member States without a derogation shall
appoint, in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 50 of the
Statute of the ESCB, the President, the Vice-President and the other
members of the Executive Board of the ECB. If there are Member
States with a derogation, the number of members of the Executive
Board may be smaller than provided for in Article 11.1 of the Statute of
the ESCB, but in no circumstances shall it be less than four.
As soon as the Executive Board is appointed, the ESCB and the ECB
shall be established and shall prepare for their full operation as
described in this Treaty and the Statute of the ESCB. The full exercise
of their powers shall start from the first day of the third stage.
2. As soon as the ECB is established, it shall, if necessary, take over
tasks of the EMI. The EMI shall go into liquidation upon the
establishment of the ECB; the modalities of liquidation are laid down
in the Statute of the EMI.
3. If and as long as there are Member States with a derogation, and
without prejudice to Article 106(3) of this Treaty, the general Council of
the ECB referred to in Article 45 of the Statute of the ESCB shall be
constituted as a third decision-making body of the ECB.
4. At the starting date of the third stage, the Council shall, acting with
the unanimity of the Member States without derogation, on a proposal
from the Commission and after consulting the ECB, adopt the
conversion rates at which their currencies shall be irrevocably fixed
and at which irrevocably fixed rate the ECU shall be substituted for
these currencies, and the ECU will become a currency in its own right.
This measure shall by itself not modify the external value of the ECU.
The Council shall, acting according to the s