EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 18 May 2010  
on the legal status of Lietuvos bankas’s assets, terms of office and remuneration of Board members, 
immunity of foreign reserves of foreign central banks  and annual financial statements of Lietuvos 
bankas 
(CON/2010/42) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 12 April 2010 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Lithuanian Ministry of 
Finance for an opinion on a draft law amending and supplementing Articles 1, 10, 17, 35 and 49 of the 
Law on Lietuvos bankas (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 Lietuvos bankas.  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 
The aim of the draft law is to: (a) specify the legal status of Lietuvos bankas’s assets; (b) reduce the terms 
of office of the Board members of Lietuvos bankas (w ith the exception of the Chairman of the Board) 
from nine to six years; (c) amend and specify th e remuneration of the Chairman and other Board 
members; (d) provide for not only the Deputy Chairmen  but also other Board members to deputise for the 
Chairman of the Board; (e) allow other Board members to participate in the meetings of the Government 
in an advisory capacity; (f) provide explicitly for im munity from appropriation by third parties of foreign 
reserves of foreign central banks held in Lietuvos bank as; and (g) ensure that the use of the term ‘annual 
financial statements’ in the Law on Lietuvos bank as is in line with other national legislation. 
 2. Legal status of Lietuvos bankas’s assets  2.1 The ECB is aware of and concerned about the un clear legal status of Lietuvos bankas’s assets. The 
primary legal registration of Lietuvos bankas’s real property, after the restoration of the 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
 2independence of Lithuania, confirmed Lietuvos  bankas’s ownership of its real property2. However, 
the ECB understands that, after a unilateral change of the data in the State Real Property Cadastre 
and Register, the Lithuanian State is currently considered to be the legal owner of Lietuvos 
bankas’s real property and that there is a risk that  Lietuvos bankas would only be able to dispose of 
its property with the approval of government authorities. This situation undermines both the 
institutional and the financial independence of Lietuvos bankas. Instructions from the state 
authorities to Lietuvos bankas or intervention by su ch authorities with regard to the assets held by 
Lietuvos bankas would be contrary to the principle of Lietuvos bankas’s institutional 
independence. Lietuvos bankas’s fi nancial independence would also be undermined, since it would 
no longer be entirely free to decide on the allo cation of its resources, and it could be unable to 
secure sufficient means for the performance of its tasks.  
2.2 Under the current legal situation, it is unclear  whether Lietuvos bankas could independently sell its 
real property and keep the proceeds from such sale.  If Lietuvos bankas could not keep the proceeds, 
this would raise doubts as to whether the current legislation is compatible with the monetary 
financing prohibition laid down in Article 123(1)  of the Treaty and supplemented by Council 
Regulation (EC) No 3603/93 of 13 December 1993 sp ecifying definitions for the application of the 
prohibitions referred to in Articles 104 and 104b(1) of the Treaty3.  
2.3 The ECB understands that this problem has arisen because no national law explicitly specifies 
whether Lietuvos bankas has the right to own the assets, or whether Lietuvos bankas can only 
manage and hold such assets on trust. However, th e ECB also understands that Lietuvos bankas has 
historically included these assets in its annual financial statements. 
2.4 Therefore, the ECB welcomes the fact that it is  explicitly specified in the Law on Lietuvos bankas 
that Lietuvos bankas legally owns the assets belonging to it, ensuring that the legal title and economic control of the assets will rest with the Lietuvos bankas. 
2.5 The ECB would also welcome such specification of the legal status of Lietuvos bankas’s assets 
being applied by virtue of the law, i.e. without  an additional requirement for Lietuvos bankas to 
apply to administrative authorities with regard to the change in the legal status of its real property, 
as provided for in Article 6 of the draft law. Othe rwise, this requirement raises concerns about the 
institutional independence of Lietuvos bankas.  
 3. Terms of office of Board members  3.1 As noted in the ECB’s Convergence Report of May 2008
4, when statutes of a national central bank 
(NCB) are amended, the amending law should safegua rd the security of tenure of the Governor and 
of other members of decision-making bodies who may have to deputise for the Governor. The 
Treaty and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank 
                                                 
2  The first paragraph of point 2 of the Explanatory memorandum to the draft law.  
3  OJ L 332, 31.12.1993, p. 1.  
4  ECB Convergence Report of May 2008, p. 19. 
 3(hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’) require such security of tenure. Article 14.2 of the Statute of 
the ESCB does not restrict the security of tenure of office to Governors, while Article 130 of the Treaty and Article 7 of the Statute of the ESCB refer to ‘members of the decision-making bodies’ 
of NCBs, rather than to Governors specifically
5.   
3.2 The change in the length of the terms of office of Board members should not affect the length of 
the terms of office of the current members and the new provisions should only apply to future terms. In order to protect the personal indepe ndence of current Board members, the draft law 
should specifically provide that the reduction of  the term of office only applies to future 
appointments of Board members, and that the curr ent members will carry out their duties until the 
expiry of their full terms of office. 
 4. Remuneration of Board members  4.1 As noted in the Convergence Report of May 2008  under the heading ‘Autonomy in staff matters’, 
Member States may not impair an NCB’s ability to  employ and retain the qualified staff necessary 
for the NCB to perform independently the tasks c onferred on it by the Treaty and the Statute of the 
ESCB. In addition, an NCB may not be put into a position where it has limited or no control over its staff, or where the government of a Member St ate is in a position to influence the NCB’s policy 
on staff matters
6. This point, which is derived from the con cept of financial independence, has been 
stressed by the ECB in several recent opinions on matters concerning national central bank staff7. In 
its opinion on draft Italian legislation on the ove rall remuneration of NCB staff, the ECB also 
pointed out ‘that the ECB defines autonomously its staff’s conditions of employment and that this 
autonomy forms part of the ECB’s independence as guaranteed by Article 108 [now Article 130] of 
the Treaty and Article 36 of the Statute [of the ESCB]’8. 
4.2 According to the current Article 10(7) of the Law on Lietuvos bankas, the Board of Lietuvos 
bankas decides the salaries of th e Deputy Chairmen and Board members, taking into account the 
salary of the Chairman of the Board. The ECB notes that, according to the proposed amendment, 
the salaries of the Deputy Chairmen and Board memb ers can not exceed 90 percent of the salary of 
the Chairman of the Board. The ECB also notes that the draft law proposes reducing the salary of 
the Chairman of the Board. 
4.3 In order to protect Lietuvos bankas’s autonomy in st aff matters, which is an aspect of the principle 
of central bank independence under Article 130 of th e Treaty, the Lithuanian authorities have an 
obligation to ensure that any amendment to the legislative provisions on the determination of the 
                                                 
5  ECB Convergence Report of May 2008, p. 19. 
6  ECB Convergence Report of May 2008, p. 22.  
7  See, e.g., paragraph 2.2 of Opinion CON/2009/47,  paragraph 2.2 of Opinion CON/2009/15 and paragraph 2.2 of Opinion 
CON/2008/9.  
8  See paragraph 3.2.2 of Opinion CON/2008/10. 
 4remuneration of Board members (including the Chairman) of Lietuvos bankas is decided in 
cooperation with Lietuvos bankas, taking due  account of the views of Lietuvos bankas9.  
4.4 In addition, any amendment to the remunera tion of Board members (including the Chairman) 
should not affect the terms under which the current  Board members (including the Chairman) have 
been appointed and should only apply to future appointments10. 
 5. Immunity of foreign reserves of foreign central banks The ECB welcomes the draft law provisions which e xplicitly protect the fore ign reserves owned by 
foreign central banks and held in the accounts opene d with Lietuvos bankas from appropriation by third 
parties, both judicial and extra-judicial, thereby ensuring greater legal certainty. 
 6. Harmonisation of the  term ‘annual financial statements’ 
6.1 The consulting authority has noted
11 that the amendment of Article 49 of the Law on Lietuvos 
bankas is editorial in nature, and is aimed at en suring harmonisation of the use of the term ‘annual 
financial statements’ in the Law on Lietuvos  bankas with other national legislation. 
6.2 However, in the Law on Lietuvos bankas it should re main clear that the annua l financial statements 
of Lietuvos bankas consist only of a balance-shee t, a profit and loss statement and explanatory 
notes (as specified in the current version of th e Law), and that the proposed new wording should 
leave no room for ambiguity as regards the c ontent of the annual financial statements. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 18 May 2010. 
[signed] 
  
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
9  Also see paragraph 3 of CON/2009/47. 
10   See paragraph 3.2.2 of CON/2008/10. 
11  Fifth paragraph of point 2 of the Explanatory memorandum to the draft law.