Opinion of the European Central Bank — of 1 December 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 Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment (COM(2003) 507 final) (CON/2003/26)
Date: 2003-12-01
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: EU statistics, balance of payments, data collection, direct investment, foreign investment, international trade, service

6.12.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 296/5

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 1 December 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 Community statistics concerning balance of payments,
international trade in services and foreign direct investment (COM(2003) 507 final)

(CON/2003/26)

(2003/C 296/04)

from the Council of

1. On 22 September 2003 the European Central Bank (ECB)
the European
received a request
Union for an opinion on a proposal for a regulation of
the
the Council on
Community statistics concerning balance of payments,
international
direct
foreign
investment (hereinafter the ‘proposed regulation’).

European Parliament

and of

services

trade

and

in

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

3. The objective of the proposed regulation is to provide a
legal basis for the collection and compilation of balance of
payments, international trade in services and foreign direct
investment statistics within the European Union (EU). The
Commission needs these statistics in order to prepare,
pursuant to Article 99(3) of the Treaty, reports to the
Council which enable it
to monitor economic devel-
opments in each Member State and in the Community
as well as the consistency of economic policies with the
broad guidelines referred to in Article 99(2). Moreover,
under Article 133(2)
the
Commission must submit proposals to the Council for
implementing the common commercial policy and is
entrusted with the task of conducting trade negotiations,
In order to
following authorisation from the Council.
accomplish these tasks, the Commission needs relevant
and good quality statistical information. In addition, such
information is needed for the implementation and the
review of
the General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Trade-
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)
Related Aspects of
Agreement,
and future
current
the
as well
negotiations on further agreements.

and (3) of

the Treaty,

agreements,

including

trade

for

as

4. The proposed regulation establishes a common framework
for the systematic production of Community statistics by
providing common definitions that should be applied by

Member States in compiling their balance of payments,
direct
international
investment statistics and by specifying their obligations
concerning the data to be transmitted.

services

foreign

trade

and

in

5. The proposed regulation also defines standards for the
dissemination of Community statistics by the Commission.
Finally, it sets up the Balance of Payments Committee as a
new forum for cooperation between Member States, the
Commission and the ECB, as an observer, concerning
statistics on balance of payments,
international trade in
services and foreign direct investment.

6. The ECB welcomes the proposed regulation. In accordance
with the Memorandum of Understanding between the
Directorate General Statistics of the ECB (DG Statistics)
and the Statistical Office of the European Communities
(Eurostat) of 10 March 2003, the ECB, and in particular
its DG Statistics, stands ready to cooperate with Eurostat
regarding the compilation of the financial account and
related income of the balance of payments of the EU,
given its experience in the compilation of the balance of
payments of the euro area.

7. Recital 7 of the proposed regulation mentions that Regu-
lation (EC) No 2560/2001 of the European Parliament and
of the Council of 19 December 2001 on cross-border
payments in euro (1) has a direct impact on the collection
of statistics. In particular, Article 8 thereof refers to the
possibility of raising the threshold for reporting cross-
from EUR 12 500 to
border payments
banks
by
in particular
EUR 50 000. This raises some concerns,
because such a rise of
the
quality of the balance of payments of EU Member States
and countries that will become EU Member States, for
which balance of payments statistics are important
in
assessing whether the convergence criteria are met.

the threshold may affect

(1) OJ L 344, 28.12.2001, p. 13.

C 296/6

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.12.2003

8. The ECB particularly welcomes Article 8 of the proposed
regulation concerning the transmission and exchange of
confidential data for statistical purposes. Indeed, Article 8
may help to overcome recurrent difficulties concerning the
exchange of confidential data. The ECB understands that
the Member States' work on the data for the Community
aggregate will also serve to enhance the quality of the euro
area aggregate.

9. The ECB also welcomes Article 11 which gives it observer
status in the Balance of Payments Committee. The ECB's
participation in this Committee will help, albeit
to an
extent limited by the observer status, to ensure consistency
in the statistical
imposed on
Member States and adherence to international statistical
standards. It will also increase the efficiency of the compi-
lation systems
for balance of payments and related
statistics and foster the quality of data and methodological
notes (metadata).

reporting requirements

there being no EU reserve

10. It is the ECB's understanding that the proposed regulation
does not require data on reserve assets from Member
States,
such.
if data on reserve assets were deemed to be
However,
required for statistical purposes in the future (e.g.
to
close, in accounting terms, the EU's balance of payments
statement and thus make an assessment of the quality of
the data easier), the ECB's DG Statistics, in liaison with the
European System of Central Banks (ESCB), would be able

assets

as

to provide expert knowledge regarding the methodology
for and compilation of this item. In this case,
it is also
understood that
the non-participating Member States
would have to provide the ECB with the relevant data
(i.e. claims on non-EU residents in currencies other than
the euro or any other currency being legal tender within
the EU).

11. The ECB shares

the

interest, which the European
in the monitoring of the
Parliament recently expressed,
international role of the euro (1). The ESCB will,
in the
coming years,
investigate to what extent information on
a currency breakdown — showing at least the breakdown
between the euro and other currencies — with regard to
transactions in goods and services is needed and how such
information could be collected in a cost-effective way.
Depending on the results of the investigation this issue
may,
in due course, be discussed within the relevant
committees, with a view to considering an appropriate
amendment to the proposed regulation.

12. This opinion will be published in the Official Journal of the

European Union.

Done at Frankfurt am Main on 1 December 2003.

The President of the ECB

Jean-Claude TRICHET

(1) Reference is made,

in particular,

to the European Parliament's
resolution on the international role of the euro zone and the first
assessment of the introduction of banknotes and coins of 3 July
2003 (COM(2002) 332 — 2002/2259(INI)).