EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
25 March 2008 
at the request of Riigikogu 
on a draft law amending the Law on Eesti Pank  
(CON/2008/14) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 6 March 2008 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Riigikogu (Parliament) for 
an opinion on a draft law amending the Law on E esti Pank (hereinafter the ‘draft law’). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and third indent of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on 
the consultation of the European Central Bank by  national authorities regarding draft legislative 
provisions1, as the draft law relates to Ee sti Pank. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of 
the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Ba nk, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft law 
The purpose of the draft law is to remove the require ment for Riigikogu to select candidates for the posts 
of Governor or Chair of the Supervisory Board of Eesti Pank among persons only with a law or 
economics degree. In future any university degree will suffice.  
Two other amendments, proposed by Eesti Pank to be able to better fulfil its role as a member of the 
European System of Central Banks (ESCB), are the fo llowing: (a) Eesti Pank’s right to restrict access to 
information if it concerns risk to price or financial st ability and if the information is subject to restrictions 
on access as specified by the ESCB; and (b) establishmen t of a multi-year mandate for the independent 
external auditors of Eesti Pank. 
 2. General observations 2.1 The ECB notes that the draft law was submitte d to Riigikogu for adop tion on 12 March 2008 and 
that the ECB received the consultation request on 6 March 2008, i.e. only a few working days 
before the submission of the draft law for adop tion. The ECB would like to draw attention to 
Article 4 of Council Decision 98/415/EC, which requir es Member States to ensure that the ECB is 
consulted at an appropriate point in time, to allo w the consulting authority to take its opinion into 
consideration before deciding on the substance of the draft legislative provisions. The ECB expects 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2 that the obligation to consult the ECB at an appr opriate stage in the Estonian legislative process 
will in the future be respected. More generally, internal administrative procedures should be in 
place to ensure that the timely consultation of th e ECB is foreseen whenever such a consultation is 
mandatory. 
2.2 The ECB notes that the proposed  amendment to the educational requirements for appointing the 
Governor and the Chair of the Supervisory Boar d of Eesti Pank would not undermine the personal 
independence requirements under Article 14.2 of the Statute of the European System of Central 
Banks and of the European Central Bank (the ‘ESCB Statute’). 
2.3 The ECB welcomes the streamlining of the access ri ghts to the information received by Eesti Pank. 
The amendment further brings the law into line with Article 38.1 of the ESCB Statute.  
2.4 The ECB also welcomes the amendment to the pr ocedure for appointing independent auditors in 
line with the ESCB good practices.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 25 March 2008. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET