Decisión nº: 003271

In February 1996 the 1971 Fund Executive Committee noted that at a hearing in the Court in La Coruña a number of claimants had raised the issue of the method to be applied to convert into Spanish Pesetas the maximum amount payable under the 1969 Civil Liability Convention and the 1971 Fund Convention which was expressed in gold francs (Poincaré francs). It was noted that these parties had maintained that the amount should be converted using the free market value of gold instead of on the basis of the Special Drawing Right (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund, since the 1976 Protocol to the 1971 Fund Convention which replaced the franc as unit of account by the SDR had not entered into force at the time of the Aegean Sea incident. The Executive Committee reiterated its position that the conversion should be made on the basis of the SDR, for the reasons invoked by the 1971 Fund in the Haven case.