CON/2004/32: Opinion of the European Central Bank of 6 October 2004 at the request of the Council of the European Union on a recommendation by the Commission of the European Communities for a Council decision on the opening of negotiations concerning an agreement on monetary relations with the Principality of Andorra (COM(2004) 548 final)
Date: 2004-10-06
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Andorra, European Central Bank, monetary agreement, monetary relations, negotiation of an agreement (EU)

16.10.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 256/9

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 6 October 2004

at the request of the Council of the European Union on a recommendation by the Commission of
the European Communities for a Council decision on the opening of negotiations concerning an
agreement on monetary relations with the Principality of Andorra (COM(2004) 548 final)

(CON/2004/32)

(2004/C 256/06)

1. The Council of

the European Union requested on
8 September 2004 an opinion from the European Central
Bank (ECB) on a recommendation by the Commission of
the European Communities for a Council decision on the
opening of negotiations regarding an agreement on mone-
tary relations with the Principality of Andorra (COM(2004)
548 final) (hereinafter the recommendation).

2. The ECB's competence to deliver an opinion on the recom-
mendation is based on Article 111(3) of the Treaty estab-
lishing 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 has
adopted this opinion.

3. The recommendation proposes a draft Council decision
establishing that since the necessary conditions laid down in
Council Decision 2004/548/EC of 11 May 2004 (1) for the
opening of the negotiations between the Community and
the Principality of Andorra (hereinafter Andorra) on a
monetary agreement (hereinafter the Agreement) have been
fulfilled, these negotiations may be opened.

4. In its Opinion CON/2004/12 of 1 April 2004 on Decision
2004/548/EC (2), the ECB acknowledged,
inter alia, that it
would be in the Community's interest to open negotiations
on the Agreement.

5. The recommendation considers that the necessary condi-
tions in Decision 2004/548/EC have been fulfilled since the
Community and Andorra have initialised the agreement on
the taxation of
income from savings and Andorra has
undertaken to ratify it before 30 April 2005. On this basis,
the ECB sees no reasons
that would militate against
adopting a Council decision to open negotiations with
Andorra on the Agreement.

6. The ECB notes that negotiations on the Agreeement will be
suspended if Andorra does not ratify the agreement on the
taxation of income from savings before 30 April 2005.

7. In accordance with Article 7 of Decision 2004/548/EC, the
Commission will conduct the negotiations with Andorra on
behalf of the Community, with Spain and France being fully
associated with the negotiations and the ECB being fully
associated with those negotiations falling within its field of
competence.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 6 October 2004.

The President of the ECB

Jean-Claude TRICHET

(1) OJ L 244, 16.7.2004, p. 47.
(2) OJ C 88, 8.4.2004, p. 18.