Decision (EU) 2015/433 of the European Central Bank of 17 December 2014 concerning the establishment of an Ethics Committee and its Rules of Procedure (ECB/2014/59)

14.3.2015 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 70/58
DECISION (EU) 2015/433 OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
of 17 December 2014
concerning the establishment of an Ethics Committee and its Rules of Procedure (ECB/2014/59)
THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
,
Having regard to Decision ECB/2004/2 of 19 February 2004 adopting the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank (1), and in particular Article 9a thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Through the establishment of an Ethics Committee of the European Central Bank (hereinafter the ‘Ethics Committee’), the Governing Council aims to strengthen the ethics rules in place and further enhance the corporate governance of the European Central Bank (ECB), the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), the Eurosystem and the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).
(2) Public awareness of corporate governance issues and of ethics rules has increased over recent years. Following the establishment of the SSM, governance issues have acquired increased significance for the ECB. The increased level of public awareness and scrutiny requires the ECB to have in place, and strictly adhere to, state-of-the-art ethics rules in order to safeguard the ECB's integrity and avoid reputational risks.
(3) The ethics rules for members of the bodies involved in the ECB's decision-making processes (hereinafter the ‘addressees’) should be based on the same principles that apply to ECB staff members and should be proportionate to the addressees' respective responsibilities. Therefore, the various rules constituting the ECB ethics framework, i.e. the Code of Conduct for the members of the Governing Council (2), the Supplementary Code of Ethics Criteria for the members of the Executive Board (3), the Code of Conduct for the members of the Supervisory Board and the ECB Staff Rules, should be interpreted in a coherent manner.
(4) The ethics rules need to be supported by well-functioning monitoring, reporting mechanisms and procedures to achieve adequate and consistent implementation in which the Ethics Committee will play a key role.
(5) In order to ensure effective interoperation between those aspects of the ethics rules that principally relate to operational implementation and those that principally relate to institutional and framework related issues, at least one of the members of the ECB's Audit Committee (hereinafter the ‘Audit Committee’) should also be a member of the Ethics Committee.
(6) The Ethics Committee should include an external member of the Audit Committee. External members of the Audit Committee are chosen from among high-ranking officials with experience in central banking,