EN  ECB-PUBLIC 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 20 January 2014 
on public access to information on officials’ wealth 
(CON/2014/5) 
 
Introduction and legal basis 
On 20 December 2013, the European Central Bank (ECB)  received a request from the President of the 
Slovenian Parliament for an opinion on a draft law on public access to information on officials’ wealth 
(hereinafter the ‘draft law’). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union and the third indent  of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 
29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Ce ntral Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions1, as the draft law relates to Banka Slovenije . In accordance with the first sentence of 
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the Eur opean Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted 
this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft law 
1.1 The purpose of the draft law, as stated in its e xplanatory memorandum, is to ensure transparency in 
the conduct of public officials and take precautionary  measures in the field of corruption. The draft 
law regulates the duty of officials to declare info rmation on their wealth and public access to such 
information. The main features of the draft law are presented below. 
1.2 Under the draft law, all officials, including the President of the Republic, Prime Minister, members 
of Parliament, ministers and judges, as well as the Governor of Banka Slovenije and Banka 
Slovenije officials are obliged to provide annually  the Slovenian Court of Audit with information 
on their personal wealth, e.g. income, r eal estate, securities and cash holdings
2. In addition, they 
have to explain any increase in their wealth sin ce their previous declaration that exceeds the net 
salary payments they received for fulfilli ng their duties as officials in this period3. To the extent it 
refers to income and wealth acquired by officials during their term of public office or performance 
of relevant activities, such information will be made publicly available on the Court of Audit’s 
website notwithstanding any legal restrictions as regards personal data protection and tax secrets4. 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  See Article 4 of the draft law. 
3  See Article 6 of the draft law. 
4  See Article 7 of the draft law. 
ECB-PUBLIC  
 
2 1.3 The draft law envisages several types of sanctions that can be imposed on officials in the event of 
non-compliance with their obligations. If officials fa il to provide information on their wealth and 
income, a fine under Article 13 of the draft law is  imposed on them. In accordance with Article 8 of 
the draft law, the Court of Audit is to order that  such official’s salary is gradually reduced every 
month by one tenth, to the level of the minimum salary, until the official provides the requested information. This order will be executed by the r espective official’s employer. In addition to any 
fine imposed in accordance with Article 13(1) of th e draft law, a fine under Article 13(4) of the 
draft law will be imposed on an official in the am ount of the value of undeclared wealth or of the 
wealth from unexplained sources, as the case may be. 
 2. General observations 2.1 The ECB welcomes this consultation by the Slove nian Parliament. The term ‘officials’, which is 
defined in Article 2 of the draft law, explicitl y includes the Governor of Banka Slovenije and 
Banka Slovenije officials. For this reason, the draft law should be assessed in terms of 
compatibility with the principle of personal indepe ndence of the Governor and of other members of 
Banka Slovenije’s Governing Board. 
2.2 Most of the draft law’s provisions are identical  to the draft legislative provisions on which the ECB 
adopted Opinion CON/2009/64
5 while the differences are not significant in terms of compatibility 
with the principle of personal independence.  Therefore, the observations expressed in 
paragraph 3.3 of Opinion CON/2009/64 also apply with respect to this draft law6. They refer to the 
ECB’s interpretation on the basis of which the dr aft law provisions on wealth declarations and 
related sanctions would not be incompatible with the principle of personal independence. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 5 January 2014.  
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Mario DRAGHI 
 
                                                 
5  All ECB opinions are available on the ECB website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
6 The ECB has also considered other similar dr aft laws in Opinions CON/2008/43 and CON/2010/27.