WRITTEN QUESTION E-0260/02 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Treatment of seignorage revenue and payments to the public exchequer.
Date: 2002-02-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, European accounting system, central bank, issuing of currency, public finance, tax system

C 301 E/36

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

5.12.2002

(2002/C 301 E/036)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0260/02

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(7 February 2002)

Subject: Treatment of seignorage revenue and payments to the public exchequer

1. Will the Commission detail the treatment, for Maastricht Treaty purposes and those of the Stability
and Growth Pact, of seignorage revenue accruing to national central banks?

2.

How is the revenue treated?

Does it enter into public surplus/deficit calculations when accruing to the central bank, or when paid

3.
as a dividend or transfer to the public exchequer?

4. What guidelines or policies are there concerning payments to national exchequers?

Can these include payments on account of accumulated past reserves, and would these be counted as

5.
revenue in assessing public deficits?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(25 March 2002)

According to the decision by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) on
1.
6 December 2001 monetary income will be pooled and allocated to the national central banks according
to Article 32.5. Neither the Statute of the ECB nor Decision 2001/914/EC of the ECB of 6 December 2001
on the allocation of monetary income of the national central banks of participating Member States from
the financial year 2002 (ECB/2001/16) (1) contain regulations for the use of monetary income. For this
reason the treatment could differ across the Member States that have adopted the single currency. In
particular the treatment of monetary income allocated by the ECB for other purposes in accordance with
the EC Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact will not differ from the treatment of monetary income in
preceding years.

The European system of national and regional accounts (ESA) framework does not identify
2., 3. and 5.
monetary income (so-called seigniorage) as it is an analytical concept only. The transactions and balance
sheet adjustments involved are ‘below the line’ and should therefore not affect the general government
surplus/deficit. In case that there are exceptional gains from the transition to the single currency (euro cash
changeover) any resulting transfers to a euro area central government should be treated as a financial
transaction not affecting the government surplus/deficit but potentially affecting government debt.

4.
The Commission is not aware of a policy guideline applicable to all the Member States. Thus, it is up
to the Member States to decide upon these issues and information about the actual decisions there have to
be collected at the level of the Member States.

(1) OJ L 337, 20.12.2001.

(2002/C 301 E/037)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0261/02

by Lord Inglewood (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(7 February 2002)

Subject: The Council

Can the Commission reconcile Commissioner Lamy’s view that ‘The Franco-German couple is the matrix
for compromise in the European Union, the forerunner for important compromises’, with the statement
made by the President of the Commission’s spokesman that,
‘In our view, no state is more equal than
another’, and if so, how?