EN Official Journal of the European Union C 51/1

RECOMMENDATION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 23 January 2014

amending Recommendation ECB/2011/24 on the statistical reporting requirements of the European Central Bank in the field of external statistics

(ECB/2014/2)

(2014/C 51/01)

THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,

Having regard to the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, and in particular Article 5.1 and the third indent of Article 34.1 thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank (1), and in particular Article 4 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) The first sentence of Article 5.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’) requires the European Central Bank (ECB), assisted by national central banks (NCBs), to collect either from the competent authorities other than NCBs, or directly from economic agents, the statistical information necessary for it to undertake the tasks of the ESCB. The second sentence of Article 5.1 provides that for these purposes it will cooperate with Union institutions or bodies, with the competent authorities of the Member States or third countries, and with international organisations. Article 5.2 stipulates that the NCBs will carry out, to the extent possible, the tasks described in Article 5.1.

(2) In cases where, in accordance with national rules and established practices, the reporting agents provide the necessary information to competent authorities other than NCBs, such authorities and their respective NCBs have to cooperate with each other to ensure that the ECB’s statistical requirements are met. Such cooperation should include the establishment of a permanent structure for transmission of data, unless the same result is already achieved by national legislation. At present, this requirement concerns cooperation between the Central Statistics Office in Ireland and the Central Bank of Ireland, and between the National Statistics Office in Malta and the Central Bank of Malta. Moreover, in Finland, from 1 January 2014, Statistics Finland will take over from Suomen Pankki the task of collecting and compiling the necessary information in the field of external statistics. In order to meet the abovementioned statistical requirements, Suomen Pankki and Statistics Finland should cooperate with each other.

(3) In view of the need to address Recommendation ECB/2011/24 to Statistics Finland and the fact the ECB will establish, maintain and publish on its website a list of competent authorities in Member States that have been notified to the ECB by the relevant NCBs as being involved in the collection and/or compilation of external statistics and to which Recommendation ECB/2011/24 should be addressed in future, Recommendation ECB/2011/24 should be amended accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS RECOMMENDATION:

SECTION I

Amendment

Section IV of Recommendation ECB/2011/24 is replaced by the following from the day following the date of publication of this Recommendation in the Official Journal of the European Union:

‘SECTION IV Final provisions 1. This Recommendation replaces Recommendation ECB/2004/16 from 1 June 2014. 2. References to Recommendation ECB/2004/16 should be construed as references to this Recommendation. 3. This Recommendation is addressed to the Central Statistics Office in Ireland, the National Statistics Office in Malta, Statistics Finland in Finland, and to such other competent authorities that may be entrusted from time to time with the collection and/or compilation of external statistics in Member States and are included in a list of competent authorities that is established, maintained and published by the ECB on its website. 4. The addressees are requested to give effect to this Recommendation from 1 June 2014, or from the date of their inclusion in the list of competent authorities referred to in paragraph 3, where such date is after 1 June 2014.’.

SECTION II

Addressees

This Recommendation is addressed to the Central Statistics Office in Ireland, the National Statistics Office in Malta, and Statistics Finland in Finland.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 23 January 2014. The President of the ECB Mario DRAGHI

(1) OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8.