Opinion of the European Central Bank of 8 July 2003 at the request of the Council of the European Union concerning a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly financial accounts for general government (COM(2003) 242 final) (CON/2003/12)
Date: 2003-07-08
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: account, data collection, exchange of information, public administration, publication of accounts

C 165/6

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

16.7.2003

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 8 July 2003

at the request of the Council of the European Union concerning a proposal for a regulation of the
European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly financial accounts for general government
(COM(2003) 242 final)

(CON/2003/12)

(2003/C 165/04)

from the Council of

1. On 21 May 2003 the European Central Bank (ECB)
the European
the
the Council on quarterly
(hereinafter

received a request
Union for an opinion on a draft
European Parliament and of
financial accounts for general government
the ‘draft regulation’).

regulation of

2. The ECB's competence to deliver an opinion is based on
the Treaty establishing the European
Article 105(4) of
Community.
In accordance with the first sentence of
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the ECB, the
Governing Council of the ECB has adopted this opinion.

3. The objective of the draft regulation is to define the main
characteristics of the European System of Accounts (ESA)
1995 (1) as applied to categories of financial transactions
general
and financial
government
all general government
sub-sectors. From 2005 onwards a full set of quarterly
financial accounts for general government is to be made
available.

and liabilities

and for

sector

assets

the

for

the request of

4. The ECB welcomes the draft regulation prepared by a joint
Commission/ECB Task Force. It is part of the Action Plan
on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) Statistical
Requirements (hereinafter the ‘EMU Action Plan’), estab-
the Ecofin Council by the
lished at
European Commission (Eurostat)
in close collaboration
with the ECB. The EMU Action Plan is a response to the
report of
the Monetary Committee on information
requirements in EMU, endorsed by the Ecofin Council on
18 January 1999, and the second progress report on
in EMU drawn up by the
information requirements
Economic and Financial Committee and endorsed by the
Ecofin Council on 5 June 2000. The fifth progress report,
as endorsed by the Ecofin Council on 18 February 2003,
the adoption of a regulation on quarterly
states that

(1) Contained in Annex A to Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of
25 June 1996 on the European System of National and Regional
Accounts in the Community, OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1 (here-
inafter ‘ESA 95’). Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No
1889/2002 (OJ L 286, 24.10.2002, p. 11).

government financial accounts has faced long delays and
that rapid progress is needed.

5. The provision of quarterly data on financial transactions,
financial assets and liabilities for the general government
sector and for all general government sub-sectors broadens
the short-term macroeconomic analysis in the framework
of ESA 95 national accounts.

to short-term public

6. Linking the data from these quarterly financial accounts
with data from quarterly non-financial accounts for general
government covered by Commission Regulation (EC) No
264/2000 of 3 February 2000 on the implementation of
ESA 95 with respect
finance
statistics (2) and by Regulation (EC) No 1221/2002 of
the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 June
2002 on quarterly non-financial accounts for general
government (3) enables
the compilation of a compre-
hensive
accounts. These
government sector integrated accounts will facilitate the
detailed assessment of fiscal policy impulses, of specific
the ECB monetary policy transmission
elements of
process related to government and of related income and
wealth effects on a quarterly basis.

set of general government

7. The draft regulation also expands the existing sub-set of
(MUFA)
quarterly Monetary Union financial accounts
Integrating quarterly data on
compiled by the ECB.
financial assets and liabilities for
financial
all general
and for
the general government
government
sub-set of quarterly
MUFA is a major step towards a comprehensive system
of quarterly MUFA for monetary policy purposes.

sector
into this

transactions,

sub-sectors

8. In this context, the ECB also welcomes the fact that Article
5(3) of the draft regulation requires from-whom-to-whom
in
information. Such information is seen as essential
and in
compiling consolidated euro area aggregates
providing a more thorough monetary policy analysis.

(2) OJ L 29, 4.2.2000, p. 4.
(3) OJ L 179, 9.7.2002, p. 1.

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Official Journal of the European Union

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In view of

9. The ECB also appreciates the fact that the draft regulation
includes a detailed set of quarterly data on government
financial wealth.
the specific difficulties in
compiling this data an exception is made for data on
unquoted shares and other equity. In this case, quarterly
estimates made by either interpolating (available annual
data) or extrapolating (when data is not available on
time) are considered acceptable.

10. The ECB strongly supports the timetable for the trans-
mission of quarterly data as envisaged under the draft
regulation. The ECB also calls upon the Member States
to abstain from derogations and to provide quarterly

data in line with ESA 95 concepts, in particular for the
compilation of euro area aggregates.

11. This opinion shall be published in the Official Journal of the

European Union.

Done at Frankfurt am Main on 8 July 2003.

The President of the ECB

Willem F. DUISENBERG