EN
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
of 28 September 2001
at the request of the Austrian  Ministry of Justice on a dr aft law amending court fees ( Euro-
Gerichtsgebühren-Novelle )
(CON/2001/29)
1. On 11 September 2001 the European Central Ba nk (ECB) received a request for an opinion
from the Austrian Ministry of Justice on a draft law amending court fees ( Euro-
Gerichtsgebühren-Novelle ), hereinafter referred to as the draft law.
2. The ECBs competence to deliver an opinion is based on the second indent of Article 105(4) of
the Treaty establishing the European Community , the second indent of Article 4(a) of the
Statute of the European System  of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank and the
first indent of Article 2(1) of Council Deci sion 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation
of the ECB by national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions1, as the legislative
proposal contains provisions concerning currency matters. The Governing Council of the ECB
has adopted this opinion in accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of
Procedure of the ECB.
3. The main purpose of the draft law is the conver sion of amounts and thresholds relating to court
fees from schillings into euro. Furthermore, the draft law is intended to take additional
measures to modernise the law concerning cour t fees, for example, by replacing traditional
methods of payment with modern electronic methods of payment. In addition, it contains
provisions allowing for the facilitation of conv ersion to the euro of financing for companies
limited by shares and limited liability companies. 
4. The substitution of schilling amounts with euro amounts is based on the following principles.
/g45 Thresholds are to be rounded up or down to  whole 10 euro amounts in order to obtain
convenient and practical figures.
/g45 Generally, single amounts of court fees ar e to be rounded to whole euro amounts for
reasons of practicality. There are some excep tions to the rule concerning low amounts
                                                          
1OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.
2and very low amounts (e.g. the fee of 20 schillings is converted into 1.5 euro; Article 6a
of the Court Fees Act introduces an amount of 0.04 cent).
/g45 The explanatory memorandum of the draft law expressly states that in order to comply
with the principle of no impact on costs, amounts have not been smoothed.
5. The ECB welcomes the draft law that provid es for the replacement of schilling amounts with
euro amounts for court fee purposes. Such adjustme nts are in the interests of legal clarity and
transparency of the national legal system.
6. The ECB welcomes the intention of the draft law to observe the principle of cost neutrality. In
its opinions of 17  May 2001 on a draft Second Federal Law containing ancillary measures for
the introduction of the euro ( 2. Euro-Justiz-Begleitgesetz ) and of 24 August 2001 on a draft law
amending Austrian criminal law ( Strafrechtsänderungsgesetz 2001) the ECB underlined the
importance of this principle in the context of  the introduction of the euro. Furthermore, it is
recalled that at the meeting of the Eurogr oup on 4 June 2001, the ministers reiterated their
policy that, overall, conversion into euro of all prices, charges and fees administered by their
Governments will be price neutral or smoothed in favour of the consumer.
7. The ECB confirms that it has no objection to the competent national authorities making this
opinion publicly available at their discretion.
Done at Frankfurt am Main on 28 September 2001.
The President of the ECB
[signed]
Willem F. DUISENBERG