EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 29 July 2010 
on the careers of Deutsche Bundesbank civil servants 
(CON/2010/59) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 7 July 2010, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Deutsche Bundesbank for 
an opinion on a draft regulation on the careers of Deutsche Bundesbank civil servants (hereinafter the 
‘draft regulation’). 
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 regulation relates to the De utsche Bundesbank. In accordance with the 
first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Pro cedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing 
Council has adopted this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft regulation 
The draft regulation adopts rules on vocational tr aining and careers for Deutsche Bundesbank civil 
servants that take special account of the lega l relationships at the Deutsche Bundesbank. 
The draft regulation is necessary because the power to  regulate these issues was transferred to the Federal 
Government (hereinafter the ‘Government’) as the result of an amendment to § 31 of the Law on the 
Deutsche Bundesbank made by the Law on the reorgani sation and modernisation of Federal civil service 
law
2, on which the ECB gave its views in Opinion CON/2008/9. 
Before the abovementioned amendment to § 31 of the Law on the Deutsche Bundesbank was adopted, the 
Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank (hereina fter the ‘Executive Board’) had the power to 
regulate staff and career matters autonomously, subject to approval or agreement, as applicable, by the 
Government. Pursuant to the ame nded § 31(4) and (6) of the Law on the Deutsche Bundesbank, however, 
the Government is authorised to regulate the legal relationships between the Deutsche Bundesbank and its 
civil servants, employees and workers either by adopti ng regulations itself, or by delegating the power to 
adopt regulations to the Executive Board.  
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  [2009] Bundesgesetzblatt (BGBl.) I p. 160. 
2 Since adoption of the amendments to § 31 of the Law on the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Government has 
delegated its power to the Executive Board by means of  § 1 and § 2 of the Regulation on the transfer of 
the Federal Government’s powers to  adopt regulations pursuant to § 31 of the Law on the Deutsche 
Bundesbank3.  
In this context, the ECB has been consulted by th e Deutsche Bundesbank in 2009 with regard to a draft 
regulation on the legal relationshi ps applying to Deutsche Bundesbank staff, which concerned a draft 
regulation regulating certain features of the legal re lationships between the Deutsche Bundesbank and its 
civil servants, employees and workers, and replacing the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Staff Regulations; on 
11 May 2009, the ECB adopted Opinion CON/2009/45.  
The Executive Board now intends to make use of the power delegated to it by the Government to adopt 
the second draft regulation, on career matters.  
In so far as the draft regulation does not intend to derogate from the more general regulation on the 
careers of Federal civil servants, its relevant provisions are referred to by  the draft regulation. The rules of 
this draft regulation on banking service careers, as we ll as on the introduction of preparation for the upper 
intermediate banking service at the Deutsche Bundesb ank’s university of applied sciences, derogate from 
the Federal Regulation on public service careers.  
 2. General observations 2.1 The ECB welcomes this consultation request by  the Deutsche Bundesbank on the draft regulation. 
Bearing in mind the principle of central bank independence and central bank autonomy in staff 
matters, however, the ECB would like to take this opportunity to reiterate its concerns about the 
regulatory arrangements that form the basis of the draft regulation.  
2.2 In Opinion CON/2008/9, the ECB expressed its  concerns about the change of regulatory 
competence in relation to Deutsche Bundesbank staff issues. In particular, it considered that the 
proposed amendment would increase the Government’s discretion in this context, thereby reducing 
the Deutsche Bundesbank’s autonomy to take decisi ons concerning its staff regulations. Further, 
the ability of the Government to withdraw the de legation at any moment was considered a potential 
tool to unduly influence a national central bank (NCB) in fulfilling its tasks and thus was 
considered as limiting that NCB’s independence
4. The ECB therefore recommended including 
sufficient safeguards in the draft law under consider ation to ensure that the Deutsche Bundesbank’s 
ability to carry out its tasks, particularly ESCB-re lated tasks, would not be affected; moreover, the 
ECB stated that it considered that the intention to delegate powers to the Deutsche Bundesbank as 
provided for in the draft law was insufficient.  In Opinion CON/2009/45, these concerns were 
restated. 
2.3 The ECB’s concerns and recommendations , as expressed in Opinions CON/2008/9 and 
CON/2009/45, were not taken into account by the na tional legislator. Against this background, the 
                                                 
3  [2009] BGBl. I p. 813. 
4  See paragraph 2.4 of Opinion CON/2008/9. All ECB opinions  are available on the ECB website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
3 ECB considers it highly important to restate that an NCB’s autonomy in staff matters is a particular 
aspect of the principle of central bank independence under Article 130 of the Treaty5. As has been 
recently emphasised on several occasions regarding different Member States, an NCB may not be put into a position where it has limited control or no control over its staff, or where the government 
of a Member State can influence its policy on staff matters
6. This stance taken by the ECB with 
respect to the autonomy of the NCBs in st aff matters is well-es tablished practice. 
2.4 In this context, the ECB once again stresses th at, when it comes to the adoption of regulations 
regarding staff matters and the direct regula tion of the legal relationships between the 
Deutsche Bundesbank and all categories of its st aff, including the careers of such staff, the 
amended § 31 of the Law on the Deutsche Bundesb ank now authorises the Government both to 
delegate such power to the Executive Board a nd to withdraw such power from the Executive 
Board. Although it was already the case prior to the amendment of § 31 in 2009 that Government approval was required for the adop tion of regulations by the Executive Board, the ECB considers 
that the amended § 31 nonetheless amounts to a withdrawal of the Deutsche Bundesbank’s 
authority to determine the legal relationships and car eer policies for all categories of its staff. This 
is a situation which, in comparison with the rules pr eviously in force, is detrimental to the Deutsche 
Bundesbank’s independence.  
2.5 The ECB therefore reiterates to the national legi slator and the Government its recommendation that 
the Deutsche Bundesbank should be given more au tonomy in staff matters, thereby providing for 
sufficient safeguards to ensure that  it can carry out all of its tasks independently, in particular its 
ESCB-related tasks.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 29 July 2010. 
[signed] 
  
The Vice-President of the ECB 
Vítor CONSTÂNCIO 
                                                 
5  See paragraph 3.2 of Opinion CON/2009/15. 
6  See ECB Convergence Report 2010, p. 23, and Opini ons CON/2008/9, CON/2008/10, CON/2009/47, CON/2010/42 and 
CON/2010/51.