Opinion of the European Central Bank of 4 January 2002 at the request of the German Ministry of Economy and Technology on a draft 56th regulation amending the Foreign Trade and Payments Regulation (CON/2002/2)
Date: 2002-01-04
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Germany, balance of payments, international investment, national law, statistics

EN

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 4 January 2002

at the request of the German Ministry of Economy and Technology
on a draft 56th regulation amending the Foreign Trade and Payments Regulation

(CON/2002/2)

1. 

On  3  December  2001  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  the  Federal

Ministry of Economy and Technology for an opinion on a draft 56th regulation amending the

Foreign  Trade  and  Payments  Regulation  (Sechsundfünfzigste  Verordnung  zur  Änderung  der

Aussenwirtschaftsverordnung) –(hereinafter referred to as the “draft Regulation”).

2. 

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

establishing the European Community, and the third and sixth 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  draft  Regulation  contains

provisions  concerning  the  collection,  compilation  and  distribution  of  monetary,  financial,

banking,  payment  systems  and  balance  of  payments  statistics.  In  accordance  with  the  first

sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, this opinion

has been adopted by the Governing Council of the ECB.

3. 

The  objective  of  the  draft  Regulation  is  to  change  certain  provisions  concerning  statistical

reporting  requirements  for  balance  of  payments  and  the  international  investment  position.  In

particular, thresholds are raised: for the exemption of national residents from having to report on

foreign  direct  investment  stocks  inwards  as  well  as  outwards  from  EUR 500 000  to

EUR 3 000 000 for the balance sheet total of the direct investment enterprise, and from having

to  report  on  claims  and  obligations  vis-à-vis  non-residents  from  EUR 1 500 000 

to

EUR 5 000 000.  Moreover,  the  introduction  of  the  euro  has  made  it  necessary  to  introduce

changes  in  respect  of  the  reporting  obligations  of  credit  institutions  in  respect  of  transactions

resulting from cross-border travel.

4. 

The ECB notes that Article 1(1) and (2) of the draft Regulation is intended to ease the reporting

obligations  of  German  businesses.  The  ECB  considers  that  the  fulfilment  of  its  reporting

requirements by the Deutsche Bundesbank in relation to balance of payments statistics and the

international  investment  position  are  unaffected,  as  stated  in  the  explanatory  letter.  The  ECB

1

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.

                                                          
supports  any  attempts  to  reduce  the  reporting  burden  in  the  area  of  statistics.  The  ECB

acknowledges  that  an  increase  in  thresholds  may  contribute  to  a  reduction  in  the  statistical

burden.  However,  it  assumes  that  qualitative  or,  where  relevant,  quantitative  investigations  of

the impact of such increased thresholds on coverage and other quality aspects of the data that

will be collected in the future have been or will be launched.

5. 

Article 1(5) of the draft Regulation proposes an amendment to the valuation of direct investment

stocks in order to comply with the new  presentation  of  the  euro  area statistics  from  end-2002

positions  i.e.  using  market  value  (in  addition  to  the  current  recording  of  book  value).  This

amendment is highly welcomed by the ECB.

6. 

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 4 January 2002.

The President of the ECB

[signed]

Willem F. DUISENBERG

2