Opinion of the European Central Bank of 28 September 2001 at the request of the Austrian Ministry of Justice on a draft law amending court fees (Euro- Gerichtsgebühren-Novelle) (CON/2001/29)
Date: 2001-09-28
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Austria, Euro Group (euro area), conversion rate, early-stage capital, euro, legal system, money, private limited company, share capital

EN

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 28 September 2001

at the request of the Austrian Ministry of Justice on a draft law amending court fees (Euro-

Gerichtsgebühren-Novelle)

(CON/2001/29)

1. 

On  11  September  2001  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  for  an  opinion

from  the  Austrian  Ministry  of  Justice  on  a  draft  law  amending  court  fees  (Euro-

Gerichtsgebühren-Novelle), hereinafter referred to as the “draft law”.

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,  the  second  indent  of  Article  4(a)  of  the

Statute  of  the  European  System  of  Central  Banks  and  of  the  European  Central  Bank  and  the

first indent of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation

of  the  ECB  by  national  authorities  regarding  draft  legislative  provisions1,  as  the  legislative

proposal contains provisions concerning currency matters. The Governing Council of the ECB

has adopted this opinion in accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of

Procedure of the ECB.

3. 

The main purpose of the draft law is the conversion of amounts and thresholds relating to court

fees  from  schillings  into  euro.  Furthermore,  the  draft  law  is  intended  to  take  additional

measures  to  modernise  the  law  concerning  court  fees,  for  example,  by  replacing  traditional

methods  of  payment  with  modern  electronic  methods  of  payment.  In  addition,  it  contains

provisions  allowing  for  the  facilitation  of  conversion  to  the  euro  of  financing  for  companies

limited by shares and limited liability companies. 

4. 

The substitution of schilling amounts with euro amounts is based on the following principles.

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

Thresholds are to be rounded up or down to whole 10 euro amounts in  order  to  obtain

convenient and practical figures.

Generally,  single  amounts  of  court  fees  are  to  be  rounded  to  whole  euro  amounts  for

reasons  of  practicality.  There  are  some  exceptions  to  the  rule  concerning  low  amounts

1

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.

                                                          
and very low amounts (e.g. the fee of 20 schillings is converted into 1.5 euro; Article 6a

of the Court Fees Act introduces an amount of 0.04 cent).

(cid:1) 

The explanatory memorandum of the draft law expressly states that in order to  comply

with the principle of “no impact on costs”, amounts have not been smoothed.

5. 

The ECB welcomes the draft law that provides for the replacement of schilling amounts with

euro amounts for court fee purposes. Such adjustments are in the interests of legal clarity and

transparency of the national legal system.

6. 

The ECB welcomes the intention of the draft law to observe the principle of cost neutrality. In

its opinions of 17 May 2001 on a draft Second Federal Law containing ancillary measures for

the introduction of the euro (2. Euro-Justiz-Begleitgesetz) and of 24 August 2001 on a draft law

amending  Austrian  criminal  law  (Strafrechtsänderungsgesetz 2001)  the  ECB  underlined  the

importance  of  this  principle  in  the  context  of  the  introduction  of  the  euro.  Furthermore,  it  is

recalled  that  at  the  meeting  of  the  Eurogroup  on  4  June  2001,  the  ministers  reiterated  their

policy that, overall, conversion into euro of all  prices, charges and fees  administered by their

Governments will be price neutral or smoothed in favour of the consumer.

7. 

The  ECB  confirms  that  it  has  no  objection  to  the  competent  national  authorities  making  this

opinion publicly available at their discretion.

Done at Frankfurt am Main on 28 September 2001.

The President of the ECB

[signed]

Willem F. DUISENBERG

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