Opinion of the European Central Bank of 30 August 2001 at the request of the Belgian Minister of Finance on a draft law on the compilation of the balance of payments and the international investment position of Belgium and amending the Decree Law of 6 October 1944 on foreign exchange controls and various legal provisions (CON/2001/23)
Date: 2001-08-30
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Belgium, balance of payments, central bank, data collection, international investment, national law, statistics

EN

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 30 August 2001

at the request of the Belgian Minister of Finance on a draft law on the compilation of the

balance of payments and the international investment position of Belgium and amending the
Decree Law of 6 October 1944 on foreign exchange controls and various legal provisions

(CON/2001/23)

1.

On  24  July  2001,  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  the  Belgian

Minister of Finance for an opinion on a draft law on the compilation of the balance of payments

and  the  international  investment  position  of  Belgium  and  amending  the  Decree  Law  of
6 October 1944 on foreign exchange controls and various legal provisions.

2.

The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on the second indent of Article 105(4) of

the Treaty establishing the European Community (hereinafter referred to as the “Treaty”), the

second indent of Article 4(a) of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the

European  Central  Bank  (hereinafter  referred  to  as  the  “Statute”),  and  on  the  third  and  fourth

indents 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 provisions1, as the

legislative proposal contains provisions concerning the collection, compilation and distribution

of  monetary,  financial,  banking,  payment  systems  and  balance  of  payments  statistics  by  the

Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique. In accordance with the first sentence

of  Article  17.5  of  the  Rules  of  Procedure  of  the  ECB,  this  opinion  has  been  adopted  by  the

Governing Council of the ECB.

3. 

The  main  purpose  of  the  draft  law  is  to  entrust  to  the  Nationale  Bank  van  België/Banque

Nationale  de  Belgique  from  1  January  2002  the  task  of  collecting  the  appropriate  basic  data

enabling  it  to  compile  statistics  related  to  Belgium’s  balance  of  payments  and  international

investment position. The Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique would thus

assume responsibility for the statistical work currently performed by an institution common to

Belgium 

and 

the  Grand  Duchy 

of  Luxembourg, 

the  Belgisch-Luxemburgs

1

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.

                                                          
Wisselinstituut/Institut  belgo-luxembourgeois  du  change,  which  the  Belgian  and  Luxembourg

Governments  have  decided  to  abolish  when  the  reason  for  the  monetary  association  between

the  two  countries  has  ceased  to  exist  with  the  introduction  of  euro  banknotes  and  coins  on

1 January 2002.

4. 

As a general observation, the ECB notes that the innovations introduced by the draft law relate

mainly  to  the  explicit  reference,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  international  investment  position  of

Belgium as such, while this was previously considered to be a statistic ancillary to the balance

of  payments,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the  participation  by  the  Nationale  Bank  van

België/Banque Nationale de Belgique in the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). As a

consequence, the restrictive list of authorised uses of data collected specifies that this is without

prejudice  to  compliance  with  the  obligations  relating  to  duties  in  respect  of  the  ESCB.  The

ECB welcomes this clarification and notes that the draft law in this respect does not give rise to

any specific remarks.

5. 

Article 4 of the draft law, which provides that the individual information collected shall be used

by  the  Nationale  Bank  van  België/Banque  Nationale  de  Belgique  for  the  purposes  of

establishing  the  balance  of  payments  and  the  international  investment  position  of  Belgium,

specifies the restrictive conditions under which this information can be disclosed, notably with

respect to third parties. Article 4(5) of the draft law provides, however, for a limit to statistical

secrecy  in  the  two  specific  cases  of  money  laundering  and  financial  embargo  measures.  The

draft  law  provides  in  particular  that  the  compulsory  regulations  issued  in  order  to  implement

financial embargo measures will take precedence over the principle of statistical secrecy, which

implies  that  the  Nationale  Bank  van  België/Banque  Nationale  de  Belgique  will  have  to

communicate information in its possession to the competent authority in charge of monitoring

compliance with financial embargo measures.

6. 

The ECB is of the view that Article 4(5) of the draft law does not imply any infringement of the

confidentiality 

regime  as  defined 

in  Council  Regulation 

(EC)  No  2533/98  of

23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central

Bank2. Article 8(5)(c) of the abovementioned Regulation allows national central banks to use

the  confidential  statistical  information  collected  to  fulfil  the  ECB’s  statistical  reporting

requirements exclusively for the exercise of the tasks of the ESCB, except if it is used in the

field  of  prudential  supervision  or  for  the  exercise  in  accordance  with  Article  14(4)  of  the

Statute  of  functions  other  than  those  specified  in  the  Statute.  In  addition,  the  principle  of

statistical secrecy is further strengthened by Article 5(2) of the draft law, which reinforces the

standards  of  confidentiality  applying  to  the  entire  staff  of  the  Nationale  Bank  van

België/Banque Nationale de Belgique in the field of statistics. The obligations imposed by law

on the Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique, when it acts as a collector of

2

OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8.

2

                                                          
statistical  information  relating  to  capital  transfers  to  zones  affected  by  an  embargo,  are  not

regarded  by  the  ECB  as  falling  within  the  statistical  functions  of  the  ESCB.  As  a  result,  the

ECB would welcome a clarification in the draft law further specifying that such obligations are

not related to the statistical purpose of ESCB reporting requirements.

7. 

The ECB confirms that it has no objection to the publication of this opinion at the discretion of

the competent national authorities.

Done at Frankfurt am Main on 30 August 2001.

The President of the ECB

[signed]

Willem F. DUISENBERG

3