Opinion of the European Central Bank of 4 February 2004 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 the compilation of quarterly non-financial accounts by institutional sector (COM(2003) 789 final) (CON/2004/4)
Date: 2004-02-04
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Economic and Monetary Union, European Central Bank, Eurostat, drafting of EU law, economic statistics, national accounts

18.2.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 42/23

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 4 February 2004

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 the compilation of quarterly non-financial accounts by
institutional sector (COM(2003) 789 final)

(CON/2004/4)

(2004/C 42/16)

from the Council of

1. On 13 January 2004 the European Central Bank (ECB)
the European
received a request
Union for an opinion on a proposal for a regulation of
the European Parliament and of the Council on the compi-
lation of quarterly non-financial accounts by institutional
sector (hereinafter the ‘draft regulation’).

2. The ECB's competence to deliver an opinion is based on
the Treaty establishing the European
Article 105(4) of
Community.
sentence of
In accordance with the first
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 provide a
common framework for the contributions of the Member
States
European
non-financial accounts by institutional sector.

compilation

quarterly

the

to

of

and the Statistical Office of

4. The Memorandum of Understanding on Economic and
Financial Statistics between the ECB's Directorate General
Statistics
the European
Communities (Eurostat), adopted on 10 March 2003, lays
down that
jointly
develop the area of non-financial accounts by institutional
sector within the framework of national accounts statistics.
The development and publication of non-financial accounts
by institutional sector for the euro area at quarterly and
annual frequency is a shared responsibility.

the ECB's DG Statistics and Eurostat

5. The ECB welcomes this draft regulation prepared by a joint
ECB Directorate General Statistics and Eurostat Task Force.
The draft is part of the Action Plan on Economic and
Monetary Union (EMU) Statistical Requirements (hereinafter
referred to as ‘EMU Action Plan’), established at the request
of the Ecofin Council by 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,
report on information
and to the

second progress

requirements in EMU, endorsed by the Ecofin Council on
5 June 2000. The fifth progress report, as endorsed by the
Ecofin Council on 18 February 2003, lists the establishment
of a set of quarterly sector accounts as a major outstanding
item from the EMU Action Plan.

6. The ECB notes that the Joint Report of the Ecofin Council
and the Commission to the European Council on Eurozone
statistics and indicators, as adopted by the Ecofin Council
on 18 February 2003, emphasises that high priority actions,
as yet unrealised, including quarterly national accounts by
institutional sector, should be speedily implemented. The
quarterly national accounts by institutional sector as part
of the Principal European Economic Indicators should be
fully implemented by 2005.

7. The Regulation will be part of the overall aim to compile a
consistent system of annual and quarterly accounts for the
European Union and for the euro area. The system includes
in particular the main macro-economic aggregates for the
households and the corporations sectors in the financial and
non-financial accounts by institutional sector. The system
requires consistency between the balance of payments
statistics and the rest of the world accounts. In addition
to the accounts by institutional sector of
the Member
States, the accounts of the EU institutions and bodies are
needed to complete the system of European accounts.

8. Finally, the ECB endorses the timetable for transmitting data
to Eurostat at the latest 90 calendar days after the end of
the quarter to which the data relate, and the provision of
back data from the first quarter of 1999 onwards.

Done at Frankfurt am Main on 4 February 2004.

The President of the ECB

Jean-Claude TRICHET