WRITTEN QUESTION E-1851/02 by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Commission bank accounts.
Date: 2002-06-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Community budget, EU Member State, Treasury, account, budgetary expenditure, central bank, commercial bank, own resources, payment, professional secret

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current scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea nor from the
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries concerning wreckfish, and accordingly the
Commission has not made conservation proposals concerning this species at this time.

The Portuguese version of the deep-sea species regulations will be amended to take into account the
language issue that is referred to.

Consideration of economic and political factors has its place in the fish stock management process, but the
first and most
is sustainable. Once
sustainability is assured, then rational decisions about fisheries exploitation can be made. In any case, the
Commission will consult the relevant industry sectors in respect of the development of conservation policy
in respect of deep-sea species.

important step must be to ensure that

fisheries development

(2003/C 192 E/023)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1851/02

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 June 2002)

Subject: Commission bank accounts

Can the Commission forward a list of the names of all banks via which payments are made from and

1.
into the Union budget?

2.

For each bank, can the Commission say what the volume of payments was in both 2001 and 2000?

Can the Commission say when, according to what criteria and under what procedure those banks

3.
were selected?

Can the Commission say whether,

4.
contracts and/or the contract award rules of the Community’s Financial Regulation were observed?

in the process, the directives on the award of public services

Answer given by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(23 September 2002)

The following banks within the Union are dealing as of 2 September 2002 with payments from and

1.
revenue into the budget:

(cid:1) Central banks:

(cid:1) Banque Centrale du Luxembourg;

(cid:1) Banque de France;

(cid:1) Banque Nationale de Belgique;

(cid:1) Banco de Portugal;

(cid:1) Banco de España;

(cid:1) Banca d’Italia;

(cid:1) Bank of England;

(cid:1) Bank of Greece;

(cid:1) Central Bank of Ireland;

(cid:1) De Nederlandsche Bank;

(cid:1) Deutsche Bundesbank;

(cid:1) Danmarks National Bank;

(cid:1) Sveriges Riksbank;

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(cid:1) Suomen Pankki;

(cid:1) National Bank of Norway;

(cid:1) Liechtensteinische Landesbank;

(cid:1) Central Bank of Iceland;

(cid:1) European Investment Bank;

(cid:1) Commercial banks;

(cid:1) Banque Bruxelles Lambert SA (B);

(cid:1) Fortis Banque SA (B);

(cid:1) KBC Bank NV (B);

(cid:1) Nordea Bank Danmark A/S (DK);

(cid:1) Commerzbank AG (D);

(cid:1) Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (F);

(cid:1) EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA (GR);

(cid:1) Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (E);

(cid:1) Bank of Ireland (IRL);

(cid:1) Banca Popolare di Sondrio (I);

(cid:1) Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (I);

(cid:1) Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat (L);

(cid:1) ABN AMRO Bank NV (NL);

(cid:1) Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (AT);

(cid:1) Banco Totta e Açores (P);

(cid:1) Okobank (FI);

(cid:1) Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SE);

(cid:1) Postgirot Bank (SE);

(cid:1) Lloyds TSB Bank plc (UK).

In addition to these bank accounts, there are accounts with the national treasuries according to the ‘own
resources Regulation’ (1). To these accounts the own resources are credited by Member States, and they are
used for payments to government entities, in particular the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee
Fund (EAGGF) and in some cases structural funds payments.

Some Member States have designated the central bank to keep the own resources account.

2.
The Commission considers that, in order to protect professional secrecy and business relations and,
so as not to undermine the protection of the commercial interests of the undertakings concerned, the
information requested by this part of the question should not be disclosed.

3.

Central bank accounts

As it is not possible to transfer funds directly to and from national treasuries, which are not acting as
banks, central bank accounts are necessary. They are used to make transfers to and from the national
treasury accounts, as well as for replenishing the commercial bank accounts. In some Member States these
accounts are also used for structural funds payments. They are opened when the respective Member State
joins the Union.

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Commercial bank accounts

The Commission has an account or accounts with at least one commercial bank in each Member State to
execute payments to beneficiaries whose bank account is domiciled in that Member State. These accounts
are euro accounts, except for non-euro countries where there are also accounts in national currency.

These banks have been selected by open tender procedure and submitted to the Advisory Committee on
Procurement and Contracts (ACPC), even if with regard of the threshold (due to low charges) this would
not have been necessary.

The present contracts entered into effect at the following dates:

(cid:1) Banque Bruxelles Lambert SA: 22/03/1998;

(cid:1) Fortis Banque SA: 22/03/1998;

(cid:1) KBC Bank NV: 22/03/1998;

(cid:1) Nordea Bank Danmark A/S: 01/09/1997;

(cid:1) Commerzbank AG: 01/03/1998;

(cid:1) Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel: 01/09/1997;

(cid:1) EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA: 01/03/1999;

(cid:1) Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria: 01/03/1999;

(cid:1) Bank of Irleand: 01/03/1998;

(cid:1) Banca Popolare di Sondrio: 01/04/1998;

(cid:1) Banca Nazionale del Lavoro: 01/04/1998;

(cid:1) Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat: 15/08/1998;

(cid:1) ABN AMRO Bank NV: 01/07/1998;

(cid:1) Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG: 01/01/2000;

(cid:1) Banco Totta e Açores: 01/03/1998;

(cid:1) Okobank: 01/01/2000;

(cid:1) Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken: 01/07/2000;

(cid:1) Postgirot Bank: 20/04/1998;

(cid:1) Lloyds TSB Bank plc: 11/03/1998.

Only offers by banks meeting the criterion of a short term rating of best category in the country
concerned, obtained from one of the main rating agencies (Moodys, Standard & Poors, Fitch), are admitted.

Banks must meet various technical requirements, in particular handling payments transmitted to them by
the Commission via SWIFT and sending statements of operations back to the Commission via SWIFT.

The evaluation of the valid offers is done by a weighting of quantitative (80 %) and qualitative (20 %)
criteria. Quantitative criteria are the amounts for credit interest and bank charges, while qualitative criteria
are the automatisation of payment handling, size of payment reference fields and implementation delays.

The answer is yes. Besides the service itself checking, the ACPC has checked in each case that the

4.
procurement directives and the Financial Regulation have been respected.

(1) Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 of 22 May 2000 implementing Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom on

the system of the Communities’ own resources (cid:1) OJ L 130, 31.5.2000.