COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 18.12.1998 
COM(1998) 783 final 
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL 
Opinion of the Commission 
on the draft Council Decision adopting the 
Statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee 
• w 

Communication from the Commission to the Council 
Opinion of the Commission 
on the draft Council Decision adopting the 
Statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee 
In accordance with Article 153 of the Treaty, the Council shall, after receiving an opinion 
of the Commission, determine the rules governing the Economic and Financial 
Committee. 
Overall, the Commission considers that the draft Statutes provide an appropriate set of 
rules for the functioning of the Economic and Financial Committee in stage 3 of EMU. 
They reflect the different tasks and responsibilities of the EFC compared with the 
existing tasks of the Monetary Committee. In addition, the draft Statutes seek to address 
many of the concerns raised in the Report of the European Parliament1 on the 
Commission proposal for a Council Decision on the detailed provisions concerning the 
composition of the EFC. 
Article 4 of the Statutes provides that members from the Commission, ECB and the 
national central banks shall not participate in votes on questions on which the Council 
may subsequently take a decision. This formulation underlines the collegiate nature of 
the Committee with votes being the exception rather than the rule. It also provides for a 
parity of status between the members of the Committee while recognising that members 
from national administrations have particular responsibilities on matters where the 
Council takes decisions. 
The Commission considers that several amendments should be made to the draft Statutes 
as follows: 
• in Article 2, the term '''moreover''' should be replaced with the term "inter alia". This 
is because the term "moreover" suggests that the tasks specified in Article 2 are in 
addition to tasks defined in Article 1 of the Decision which refers to the Treaty. It is 
not possible for the Committee to acquire tasks additional to those specified in the 
Treaty. The term "inter alia" makes it clear that the purpose of Article 2 is to specify 
in more detail some of the tasks of the EFC. 
A4-0264/98 of 1 July 1998: Rapporteur: Mrs Pervenche Berès 
"2. 
• 
• Article 2, second indent should.be qualified to better reflect the role of the European 
Commission as provided for in the Resolution of the European Council of 
Luxembourg of 13 December 1997 on economic policy co-ordination in stage 3 of 
EMU and on Treaty Articles 109 and 109b. To this end, an additional recital should 
be added stating "Whereas the Resolution of the European Council of Luxembourg of 
13 December 1997 on economic policy co-ordination in stage 3 of EMU and on 
Treaty Articles 109 and 109b provides that the Commission should provide analyses 
to the Council, and the Economic and Financial Committee should prepare the 
Council's reviews of the development of the exchange rate of the euro. " 
the voting rules in Article 4 could be clarified. The current draft states that "Opinions, 
reports or communications shall be adopted by a majority of members, if a vote is 
requested'. This rule is ambiguous as there are 34 members of the EFC, and thus 18 
votes constitutes a majority of members. However, in most cases only the 15 
members from national administrations shall participate in votes and thus 8 votes 
would constitute a majority. It is therefore suggested that the first sentence of Article 
4 be moved to the end of that Article and that it be modified to read "Opinions, 
reports or communications shall be adopted by a majority of the members entitled to 
participate in a vote if a vote is requested." 
the last sentence in Article 5 should be deleted. It is not possible for the President's 
alternate to become a member of the Committee even on a temporary basis. The 
President does not cease being a member of the Committee on becoming President. 
Were his alternate to assume temporary membership, then the Member State 
concerned would have three members of the Committee, which is in contradiction to 
the limit of two members per Member State imposed in Article 109c(2) of the Treaty. 
The Commission acknowledges that for the President to be able to fulfil his 
chairmanship duties, he should be able to delegate the tasks of ordinary members of 
national administrations to his alternate. This outcome can be achieved by modifying 
Article 7 of the Statutes as suggested below. 
The second sentence of Article 7 should be modified to read "They shall not vote. 
Unless the Committee decides otherwise, they shall not take part in the discussions". 
This change has two benefits. Firstly, alternates may be invited to speak, e.g. the 
Chairman of the alternates could be invited to make a presentation to the Committee 
on the discussions of the alternates. Secondly, enabling the alternates to speak would 
overcome the problem with Article 5. The Committee as a general rule could permit 
the President's alternate to take part in discussions, thus leaving the President free to 
chair the meeting in an efficient manner. 
a new Article 10 bis should be inserted to take account of paragraph 16 of the 
Resolution of the European Parliament which calls upon the President of the EFC to 
appear before the relevant Committee of the Parliament. It could read "The President 
of the Committee shall have responsibility of maintaining the Committee's relations 
with the European Parliament " 
the sentence in Article 12 which states "The Secretary and his/her staff shall act upon 
the instructions of the Committee" must be deleted. This is because the Secretary and 
staff of the secretariat will be Commission officials, and the Staff Regulations prohibit 
Commission officials from taking instructions from outside bodies. This sentence is 
5 
superfluous as the first sentence states that the Committee shall be assisted by a 
secretariat under the direction of a Secretary. 
V 
ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(98) 783 final 
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