WHEN EU finance ministers gather Dublin in a fortnight's time for one of the key meetings of the Irish presidency, they will consider a legal framework for the introduction of the single currency which is now nearing completion.

A key part of this framework will be an effort to ensure that the member currencies of the union can be exchanged for one another at the lowest possible cost in the three years after currency values are locked together and before the single currency itself is introduced.

Monetary union is due to become a reality on January 1st, 1999, when the members currencies are irrevocably locked together. However a three year transition period will then be required before the EU single currency will be in full circulation. This creates major issues relating to the handling of the member currencies in the 1999-2002 period.

It is now likely that the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, will be able to present a detailed legal framework to cover such issues at the informal ECOFIN meeting of September 20-22nd.

A key part of this framework will be that member state's central banks would not charge commercial banks for changing one member currency into another. So, for example, if the pound and the deutschmark are both part of the single currency, an Irish bank will not face a cost in exchanging the German currency for the Irish one.

EU Ministers believe that financial institutions would, in turn, be under pressure not to charge their customers substantial fees for exchanging one member currency for another.

This would prove an immediate benefit to the thousands of companies trading across national boundaries, as well as to those travelling from one member state to another.

Whether member state currencies will be freely accepted in other single currency states in the 1999 to 2002 period remains open to question. In many cases major currencies are likely to become increasingly acceptable by retailers and hoteliers, without charging large exchange fees.

The ministers will also consider plans for the printing of the single currency itself. Here the plan is that individual national central banks would take on the responsibility of printing the entire range of one particular note.

This would ensure the uniform look of the notes involved, while allowing the printing work to be undertaken in a number of centres across the EU.

The Central Bank of Ireland's advanced facilities in Sandyford, Co Dublin, are likely to be in the running for some of the printing work.

While the Dublin ECOFIN is an "informal" meeting and cannot finalise any decisions, such meetings have played a key role in the past in building consensus. Mr Quinn is also expected to seek broad agreement on the rules for the relationship between the currencies joining monetary union and those staying out.

He will discuss the so called stability pact, the rules which would apply to states once they join monetary union.

The European Union's monetary committee of finance official and central bankers, an important behind the scenes player in Europe's drive towards a single currency, is to meet on Monday to discuss the key issues which will be raised at the ECOFIN.

They were also raised at a meeting of the European Monetary Institute which Mr Quinn attended this week in Frankfurt.