EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 14 January 2008 
at the request of the Swedish Parliament on a draft amendment to the Law on Sveriges Riksbank 
concerning the terms of office of members of Sveriges Riksbank’s Executive Board 
(CON/2008/4)  
 Introduction and legal basis On 9 October 2007 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Finance Committee of 
the Swedish Parliament for an opinion on a draft amendment to the Law on Sveriges Riskbank 
concerning the terms of office of members of Sveriges  Riksbank’s Executive Board (hereinafter the ‘draft 
amendment’). 
The ECB’s competence to de liver an opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the 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 
provisions
1, as the draft law relates to Sveriges Riksba nk. In accordance with the first sentence of 
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the Euro pean Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted 
this opinion. 
 1. Purpose of the draft regulations 
At present all members of Sverig es Riksbank’s Executive Board are appointed for six-year terms. The 
underlying assumption when the system was establishe d in 1999 was that one member of the Executive 
Board would be replaced each year. However, this cycle has been disturbe d because several Executive 
Board members have left before the end of their term s of office, and this may happen again in future. To 
deal with this, the draft amendment provides that Ex ecutive Board members’ terms can be either five or 
six years. This provides some flexibility when appoi nting new Executive Board members, allowing their 
terms to be arranged so as to avoid a situation wher e the terms of several members expire at the same 
time. 
2.  General observations 2.1 The proposed terms of office comply with Article  14.2 of the Statute of the European System of 
Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (her einafter the ‘ESCB Statute’), which inter alia 
                                                     
 
1 OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2 lays down a minimum five-year term of office fo r Governors of national central banks (NCBs). 
However, the ECB would nonetheless make the following comments and recommendations concerning the draft amendment and the requirements of central bank independence. 
2.2 Various Treaty and ESCB Statute provisions requ ire comparable security of tenure to that of 
Governors for all members of NCBs’ decision-making bodies. Article 14.2 of the ESCB Statute does not restrict the security of tenure of office to Governors, whilst Article 108 of the Treaty and Article 7 of the ESCB Statute refer to ‘members  of the decision-making bodies’ of NCBs, rather 
than to Governors specifically
2. This applies in particular wher e a Governor is first among equals 
between colleagues with equivalent voting right s or where such other members may have to 
deputise for the Governor3. Personal independence would be jeopardised if the same rules for the 
security of tenure of office did not also apply to other members of the decision-making bodies of NCBs involved in the performance of ESCB-related tasks
4. 
2.3 Although the ECB in principle encourages having terms of office of equal length for all members 
of NCBs’ decision-making bodies, there may be jus tifiable exceptions. If Member States wish to 
have different terms of office for their Executive Board members, this is acceptable provided that 
the reasons behind the approach are clearly stated and the arrangement does not infringe the principles of central bank independence. In the current case, the explanatory memorandum explains clearly that the intention behind the change in th e law is that one member of the Executive Board 
should be replaced each year. This is an arrange ment that the ECB does not oppose, since both of 
the proposed terms of office (6 and 5 years, resp ectively) comply with Article 14.2 of the ESCB 
Statute. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 14 January 2008. 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                     
 
2  ECB Convergence Report May 2007, p. 19.  
3  ECB Convergence Report May 2007, p. 19. 
4  See: paragraph 8 of ECB Opinion CON/2004/35 of 4 Nove mber 2004 at the request of the Hungarian Ministry of 
Finance on a draft law amending the Law on Magyar Ne mzeti Bank; paragraph 8 of ECB Opinion CON/2005/26 of 
4 August 2005 at the request of Národná banka Slovenska  on a draft law amending the Act No 566/1992 Coll. on 
Národná banka Slovenska, as amended,  and on amendments to certain la ws; paragraph 3.3 of ECB Opinion 
CON/2006/44 of 25 August 2006 at the request of the Banca d ’Italia on the amended Statute of the Banca d’Italia; 
paragraph 2.6 of ECB Opinion CON/2006/32 of 22 June 2006 at th e request of the French Senate on a draft law on the 
Banque de France; and paragraphs 2.3 and 2.4 of ECB Op inion CON/2007/6 of 7 March 2007 at the request of the 
German Ministry of Finance on a draft Eighth La w amending the Law on the Deutsche Bundesbank.