EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 30 December 2005  
at the request of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic on a draft Ministry of Finance 
measure stipulating the structure and identification  of items in individual financial statements, the 
content of such items and the extent of fina ncial statements data subject to disclosure  
by Národná banka Slovenska 
(CON/2005/61) 
 1. On 8 December 2005 the European Central Bank (E CB) received a request from the Ministry of 
Finance of the Slovak Republic for an opinion on a draft Ministry of Finance measure stipulating 
the structure and identification of items in individua l financial statements, the content of such items 
and the extent of financial statements data s ubject to disclosure by Národná banka Slovenska 
(hereinafter the ‘draft measure’). 
2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on the third indent of Article 2(1) of Council 
Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consulta tion of the European Central Bank by national 
authorities regarding draft legislative provisions
1, as the draft measure contains provisions 
concerning a national central bank (NCB). In accordan ce with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of 
the Rules of Procedure of the European Centra l Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this 
opinion. 
3. The main objective of the draft measure is to provide  for the structure and identification of items in 
individual financial statements, the content of such items and the extent of financial statements data 
which are subject to disclosure by Národná banka  Slovenska (NBS). The explanatory memorandum 
accompanying the draft measure states that unde r the draft measure, NBS should prepare its 
financial statements on the basis of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in order to 
allow monitoring of the performance of tasks and individual objectives under the NBS Act2.  
4. The ECB notes that the competence to decide on th e accounting and financia l reporting standards to 
be used by NBS lies with the national legislator. The ECB however wishes to draw attention to the 
accounting and financial reporting re gime of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as 
required under Article 26.4 of the Statute and laid  down in Guideline ECB/2002/10 of 5 December 
2002 on the legal framework for accounting and fina ncial reporting in the European System of 
Central Banks3 (hereinafter the ‘Accounting Guideline’ ). Although the Accounting Guideline does 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2  Act No 566/1992 Coll. on Národná banka Slovenska, as amended. 
3  OJ L 58, 3.3.2003, p. 1. 
 2not lay down binding rules for the NCBs’ national reports and financial ac counts, Article 2(2) 
stipulates that ‘[i]n order to achieve consiste ncy and comparability between the ESCB and national 
regimes’, the ECB recommends that NCBs should, to  the extent possible, follow the rules set out in 
this Guideline for their national reports and fi nancial accounts. The EC B understands that the 
Slovak Ministry of Finance only intends to make NBS subject to IFRS for a temporary period. The 
ECB notes that from the introduction of the euro in Slovakia, NBS will fall under the scope of application of the Accounting Guideline for ES CB accounting and financial reporting purposes, and 
recommends that from that moment onwards NBS s hould follow the rules set out in the Accounting 
Guideline for its national financial accounts. Th e ECB also notes that maintaining two separate 
accounting regimes (one for ESCB reporting, and one for national financial accounts) may prove to 
be financially and ope rationally burdensome. 
5. This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. 
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 30 December 2005. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET