EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 1 July 2010  
on the remuneration of the staff of Banca Na ţională a României  
(CON/2010/51) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 18 June 2010 the ECB received a request from th e Romanian Ministry of Public Finances for an 
opinion on a law on certain measures necessary for the restoration of budgetary balance (hereinafter the 
‘law’). This law was adopted on 30 May 2010 by the Romanian Government. The ECB had not been consulted and, on 9 June 2010, the ECB sent a letter to  the Romanian Government, drawing attention to 
the obligation to consult it.  
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 Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions
1, as the law relates to Banca Na ţională a României (BNR). 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 law 
The law, among various decreases of the salaries of different categories of public employees, provides for 
a decrease of 25% of the salaries of the staff of BN R, and for the transfer to the State budget of the 
amounts representing this decrease. The law indicates th at the salary decreases set out in the law will 
apply until 31 December 2010. Startin g on 1 January 2011, social and personnel policies will be applied 
which should ensure the observance of both the public  expenditure level set through the measures adopted 
in 2010 for the decrease of public expenditure and the provisions of the 2011 State budget and State 
social insurance budget. 
 2. General observations  The ECB received the consultation request after the adoption of the law and before the delivery of a 
decision of the Romanian Constitutional Court regarding its constitutionality. In view of the late stage in 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2 the legislative process at which the ECB was consu lted, it would like to point out that, in cases of 
particular urgency which do not allow for a normal consultation period, the consulting authority may 
indicate such urgency in the consultation request and ask for a shorter deadline for adoption of the ECB’s 
opinion. This does not prejudice the national authorities’ duty under Article 127(4) of the Treaty to appropriately consult the ECB on national draft legi slative provisions falling within its fields of 
competence. It follows from Article 3(4) of Deci sion 98/415/EC that Member  States are obliged to 
suspend the process of adoption of the draft legislativ e provision pending receipt of the ECB’s opinion. It 
is necessary that the adopting national authority shou ld have the opportunity meaningfully to deliberate 
the ECB’s opinion prior to taking its decision on the substance. If a time limit has been set for submission 
of the ECB opinion and this time limit has expired,  the national authority concerned may restart the 
adoption process
2. As regards future amendments or implementi ng measures to the law, it is expected that 
the obligation to consult the ECB is respected. Th is is particularly important considering that 
Article 17(2) of the law seems to indicate the possibilit y of further legislative measures affecting the staff 
of BNR. In this regard, it is recommended that in ternal administrative procedures should be in place to 
ensure that timely consultation of the ECB is fo reseen whenever such consultation is mandatory. 
 3. Specific observations  As is the case for certain other categories of pub lic employees, the law provides for a decrease of the 
salaries of the staff of BNR, although the Romanian state is not the formal employer of the BNR staff. According to the Statute of BNR, the salaries of  BNR staff are paid from the central bank’s own 
resources. In addition, Article 3(2) of the law provid es for the direct transfer to the State budget of the 
amounts representing the decrease. In this context and independently of the need for emergency 
measures, the ECB would like to recall that any ope ration between a national central bank (NCB) and the 
national authorities of an EU Member State has to comp ly with the limitations imposed in this respect by 
the Treaty, and in particular with the principle of central bank independence in Article 130 and the 
prohibition on monetary financing in Article 123
3. Previous ECB opinions have clarified the implications 
of these Treaty-based requirements4, which can be summarised as follows. 
3.1 Compliance with the central bank independence principle 
3.1.1 The principle of central bank independence requir es that no third party should be able to exercise 
direct or indirect influence over the NCB. Th is includes, as recalled in the ECB convergence 
reports and stressed in various ECB opinions, the point that Member States may not impair an 
                                                 
2  See Guide to consultation of the European Central Bank by  national authorities regardin g draft legislative provisions, 
Title IV, Section 1. 
3  As also reflected respectively in Article 7 and Article 21.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of 
the European Central Bank (hereina fter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’). 
4  See, concerning independence, for example paragraph 6 of ECB Opinion CON/99/16, paragraphs 3.2 and 3.3 of ECB 
Opinion CON/2008/82, paragraphs 2.2 and 2.4 of ECB Opinion CON/2009/53 and further opinions quoted in the 
footnotes below. See also the ECB’s Convergence Report of  December 2006, pp. 27-30; of May 2007, pp. 19-23; and of 
May 2010, p. 23. As concerns the prohi bition on monetary financing, see para graph 3 of ECB Opinion CON/2009/47 and 
paragraph 2.2(b) of ECB Opinion CON/2009/59. All ECB opinions are av ailable on the ECB’s website at 
www.ecb.europa.eu.  
3 NCB’s ability to employ and retain the qualif ied staff necessary for the NCB to perform 
independently the tasks conferred on it by the Treaty, the Statute of the ESCB and national legislation
5. Also, an NCB may not be put into a position where it has limited or no control over its 
staff, or where the government of a Member St ate can influence its policy on staff matters.  
3.1.2 The Law on the Statute of Banca Na ţională a României (hereinafter the ‘Law on the Statute of 
BNR’) clearly provides for the Management Board of BNR to decide on the internal organisation 
and the salaries of the members of BNR staff. In order to protect BNR’s autonomy in staff matters, 
which is a particular aspect of central bank independence under Article 130 of the Treaty, the 
Romanian authorities are under an obligation to ensure that any amendment to the legislative provisions relating to the determination of the re muneration of the employees of BNR is decided in 
cooperation with BNR, taking due account of the views of BNR
6. 
3.2 Compliance with the monetary financing prohibition 
3.2.1 The provisions on central bank salary decreases mu st also comply with the monetary financing 
prohibition laid down in Article 123 of the Treaty, as further clarified in Council Regulation (EC) 
No 3603/93 of 13 December 1993 specifying the defin itions for the application of the prohibitions 
referred to in Articles 104 [now 123] a nd 104b(1) [now 125(1)] of the Treaty7. The provision 
prohibits overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility with the ECB or NCBs in favour of 
Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, centr al governments, regional, local or other public 
authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of Member States, and the 
purchase directly from these public sector entities by th e ECB or NCBs of debt instruments. With a 
view to preserving the integrity of the central  bank’s balance sheet, the monetary financing 
prohibition is of key importance in ensuring th e primary monetary policy objective of price 
stability, which must not be impeded. Therefore, th e prohibition must be interpreted extensively to 
ensure its strict application. Even if Article 123(1)  of the Treaty refers literally to ‘credit facilities’, 
i.e. with the obligation to repay su ch credit, this prohibition also app lies a fortiori to other forms of 
funding, i.e. without the obligation to repay, sin ce it has the overall aim of public finance discipline 
and of prohibiting NCBs from financing the publi c sector. This implies that both the ultimate 
objective and the spirit of this provision must  be taken into account in its interpretation8.  
3.2.2 From an accounting perspective, a decrease of  staff salaries will de facto decrease the operational 
costs of the BNR, hence increasing potentially its  financial resources. However, if the related 
increase of BNR’s financial resources is directly transferred to the State, such a situation would effectively mean increasing the fund ing of the Romanian State at th e expense of the BNR. In this 
respect, any direct financial transfer of this nature from the BNR to the State budget can be 
assimilated to monetary financing which is clear ly prohibited under Article 123 of the Treaty. 
                                                 
5  See paragraph 2.2 of ECB Opinion CON/2008/9. 
6  See paragraph 4.3 of ECB Opinion CON/2010/42.  
7  OJ L 332, 31.12.1993, p. 1. 
8 See paragraph 9 of ECB Opinion CON/2003/27. 
4 Therefore, in order to avoid a breach of the m onetary financing prohibiti on the law should be 
amended to ensure full compliance with the Treaty provisions9. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 1 July 2010. 
 
[signed] 
 
The Vice-President of the ECB 
Vítor CONSTÂNCIO 
                                                 
9  In this respect, the situa tion is different from that addressed in ECB Opinion CON/2009/15.