EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 5 November 2004 
at the request of the Czech Statistical Office 
on a draft decree laying down the programme of statistical surveys for the year 2005 
(CON/2004/36) 
 
1. On 5 October 2004, the European Central Bank  (ECB) received a request from the Czech 
Statistical Office (CSO) for an opinion on a draft decree laying down the programme of statistical surveys for the year 2005 (hereinafter the ‘draft decree’). 
2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on the fourth indent of Article 2(1) of 
Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the c onsultation of the European Central Bank by 
national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions
1, as the draft decree relates to the 
collection of monetary, financial, banking, payment systems and balance of payments statistics. In 
accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rul es of Procedure of the European 
Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 
3. The draft decree lays down the programme for statis tical surveys for 2005. The CSO is required to 
lay down such programmes on an annual basis pursu ant to Article 10(1) of the Act on the State 
Statistical  Service No 89/1995 Coll., as amended.  
4. An annex to the draft decree submitted by the CSO (hereinafter the ‘annex’) contains ‘template’ 
statistical surveys for each category of financial institution (reporting unit) regulated by the draft 
decree. 
The purpose of the surveys is to collect statistical  data for use in assessing the state and estimating 
the development of key macroeconomic indicat ors for the Czech Republic, for compiling the 
national accounts of the financial institutions sect or, calculating the government deficit and debt 
and for the CSO’s publications and analytical activ ity. The results of the surveys, once processed, 
are then to be forwarded to international m onetary institutions and other international 
organisations.  
The financial institutions covered by the progr amme (mainly insurance companies, banks, non-
banking financial institutions preparing their acc ounts as banks, and ‘other financial institutions’ 
preparing their accounts as businesses and not as banks ) are generally required to complete both 
                                                      
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2 quarterly and annual surveys in the form of e xhaustive questionnaires. Government institutions 
either complete quarterly surveys or annual su rveys. Furthermore, investment companies are 
obliged to complete a comprehensive survey incl uding the financial results of their mutual funds 
and a separate questionnaire for their money market funds. 
As regards the means of collection, the surveys cont ained in the annex to the draft decree stipulate 
that the data may either be collected by completi ng questionnaires or by electronic data collection. 
5. Article 5.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central 
Bank provides that in order to undertake the task s of the European System of Central Banks 
(ESCB), the ECB, assisted by the national centr al banks, shall collect the necessary statistical 
information either from the competent national au thorities or directly from economic agents. For 
these purposes it shall cooperate, inter alia, with the Community institutions or bodies and with the 
competent authorities of the Member States. Article 10 of the Treaty requires that ‘Member States shall take all appropriate measures … to ensure fu lfilment of the obligations arising out of this 
Treaty’. More specifically, Article 4 of Council Re gulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 
concerning the collection of statistical in formation by the European Central Bank
2 requires all 
Member States to ‘organi se themselves in the field of statistics … and fully cooperate with the 
ESCB in order to ensure the fulfilment of the oblig ations arising out of Article 5 of the Statute’. 
6. Recital 17 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 pr ovides that ‘… while it is recognised that the 
statistical information needed to fulfil the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements is not the same 
for the participating as for the non-participating Memb er States, Article 5 of the Statute applies to 
both participating and non-participa ting Member States; … this fact, together with Article [10] of 
the Treaty, implies an obligation to design and impl ement at the national level all the measures that 
Member States consider appropriate in order to carry  out the collection of the statistical information 
needed to fulfil the ECB’s statis tical reporting requirements and the timely preparations in the field 
of statistics in order for them to b ecome participating Member States’.  
7. On the basis of the above, the ECB notes that the reporting obligations laid down by national 
authorities are an indispensable component of national collection systems. National collection systems are highly complex, may differ between each Member State and depend on many national 
and external factors. As a consequence, the E CB’s comments on the draft decree are mainly of a 
general nature and aim to draw attention to those aspects that could be stated more explicitly in the 
draft decree. 
8. The ECB concludes that the draft decree appears to impose on financial institutions in the Czech 
Republic some of the statistical reporting requ irements applying to financial institutions in 
participating Member States. Furthermore, the draft decree seems to be consistent with these requirements. 
                                                     
 
2 OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8. 
3 9. At the same time, it is the task primarily of the national authorities of non-participating Member 
States to assess whether any proposed detailed reporting requirements and collection methods at 
national level are the most efficient and effectiv e and the least burdensome for the reporting agents 
concerned.   
10. This opinion does not prejudice any later assessmen t by the ECB of statistical data and other 
information collected under the CSO’s reporting requirements and reported to the ECB. 
11. The ECB confirms that it has no objection to the competent national authorities making this 
opinion publicly available at their discretion. This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website 
six months after the date of its adoption.  
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 5 November 2004. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET