EN ECB-PUBLIC 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 22 June 2011 
on  the Hungarian State Audit Office in relation to its audit of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank 
(CON/2011/53) 
 Introduction and legal basis
 
On 19 May 2011 the European Central Bank (ECB) r eceived a request from the Hungarian Ministry of 
Public Administration and Justice for an opinio n on a draft law on the State Audit Office (SAO) 
(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 the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB). In accordance with 
the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Pr ocedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing 
Council has adopted this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft law 
The purpose of the draft law is to replace Law XXXVIII of 1989 on the SAO. According to the 
explanatory memorandum, Law XXXVIII of 1989 on the SAO must principally be amended to recodify 
provisions of the previous framework and include ne w elements that became necessary in the light of 
developments over the past few years.  
The draft law retains the provision that the SAO aud its the MNB’s financial management and all central 
bank activities carried out according to the Law on the MNB
2 that do not constitute part of its primary 
tasks. Accordingly, the scope of SAO’s audit cove rs whether the MNB operates in accordance with its 
statutes, the decisions adopted by its General Meeting and any applicable legislation. 
 2. The SAO’s powers and central bank independence  2.1  The principle of central bank independence referr ed to in Article 130 of the Treaty and Article 7 of 
the Statute of the European System of Central Ba nks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter 
the ‘Statute of the ESCB’) provides that the exer cise of central bank powers and the performance of 
                                                 
1 OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2  Law LVIII of 2001 on the MNB. 
ECB-PUBLIC 
2 tasks and duties under the Treaty and the Statut e of the ESCB are to be free from external 
instructions or government influence. In particul ar, when the SAO carries out a State audit of the 
MNB, the following central bank independence safegua rds should apply: (a) the scope of the audit 
should be clearly defined in the legal framework;  (b) the activities of MNB’s independent external 
auditors should not be prejudiced; (c) the audit should comply with the prohibition on giving instructions to the MNB and its decision-making bo dies; (d) the audit should not interfere with the 
MNB’s ESCB-related tasks; (e) the audit should be performed on a non-political, independent and 
purely professional basis
3.  
2.2 For reasons of certainty this provision should make  it clear that the SAO’ s audit does not extend to 
the MNB’s primary tasks, its main objective or an y of its ESCB-related tasks. Therefore, the ECB 
welcomes the fact that Article 5(10) of the dr aft law already excludes the MNB’s primary tasks 
from the scope of the SAO’s audit. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 22 June 2011. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
3  See the ECB’s Convergence Report 2010 p. 23, and para graph 3.3 of Opinion CON/2011/9. See also Opinions 
CON/2006/4, CON/2002/22 and CON/2006/ 50. All ECB opinions are published on the ECB’s website at 
www.ecb.europa.eu.