European Commission's recommendation on legal tender

The EC has issued recommendations on the use of banknotes. I was blown away by some of the points made:

• Payments in cash should be the accepted rule
• No surcharges should be imposed on payments in cash
• It should be the rule to accept high denomination banknotes
• Member States should not adopt new rounding rules to the nearest five cent

Is this the same EC that pushes banks to implement SEPA, electronic mandates and the payments services directive? I thought it was the EC's goal to improve efficiency and create one European market? Strange. But let's take a closer look at some of the points in the recommendations.

No surchanges. The first thing that comes to mind is why the EC wants to steer the use of payment methods. By prohibiting the use of surcharges, the EC prohibits the retailer to direct payment choices. Apparently, it is allowed to charge fees for the use of credit cards, but not allowed for cash. Above ten euros, the marginal cost of debit cards is less than the marginal cost of cash (for legitimate businesses who pay their taxes) so why shouldn't the retailer should be able to direct payment choices?

Combined with the third recommendation, this raises another issue. When the retailer is obliged to accept cash and is not allowed to direct the method by placing surcharges AND has to accept 500 euro notes, the retailer suddenly finds himself with loads of cash in his shop. Seems a bit unsafe to me. Although the fourth point makes sure a large part of this stash is made up of 1 and 2 cent coins (that are actually more expensive to make than they are worth...).

In my humble opinion, the EC has missed the boat by quite a large margin. Part of the EU's goal for payment systems should be economic efficiency and forcing your average tabac to take 500 euro notes does not contribute to that goal in any way.