This involves the favourable vote of half of its members with voting rights plus one (11), where abstentions count as a “no”. In the event of a tie, the President has the casting vote. Monetary policy decisions are adopted by simple majority.4 Adoption of decisions by the written procedure at the Governing Council The Governing Council adopts a large number of decisions on a daily basis using the written procedure (Art. 4(7) of the ECB's Rules of Procedure). More than 1,200 decisions were adopted using the written procedure in 2019; less than 1% of them had to be submitted to a physical meeting to facilitate discussion, after comments had been received from Council members. 1.4 The General Council of the ECB The General Council of the ECB is composed of the President and the Vice-President of the ECB and the governors of the NCBs of all 27 EU Member States. It meets every three months and decisions are adopted by simple majority, unless provided otherwise by the Statute of the ESCB. The President of the ECB must keep the General Council informed of the decisions adopted by the Governing Council. Under the Statute of the ESCB, the 3  As from 1 January 2015, when Lithuania joined the euro area and the number of 18 countries was exceeded, a system of rotating voting rights, agreed by the EU Council in 2003, came into operation in order to ensure that the ECB would be able to continue to take decisions efficiently and swiftly.

Institutional transparency is also a basic principle for the proper functioning of independent public authorities, given that confidence in and the credibility of these institutions are the basis for their effectiveness. In this respect, the Banco de España has a Transparency Portal16 where it publishes institutional and planning information (functions, legal framework, organisational structure, plans and schedules, codes of conduct, the calendars of the Governor and the Deputy Governor, and personal data processing records), information of legal importance (documents with legal effects; documents subject to public consultation; reports, technical applications and guidelines; documents from international organisations), and miscellaneous economic information (contracts, agreements, management delegation agreements and concession contracts, cultural and social work, budget management, annual accounts, salaries of governing body members and senior directors, conflicts of interest of public employees, fixed assets and official vehicles, historical objects and art collection). The Banco de España also has a long-standing tradition of publishing statistics and analysis and research reports, including the Annual Report, the Financial Stability Report, the Economic Bulletin and the Statistical Bulletin. In addition to the information provided on our website, the Banco de España runs specific web portals such as the Bank Customer Portal; the Education Portal and Finance for All (on financial literacy); and portals encouraging the use of e-administration, such as the Virtual Office. Looking ahead, we have set ourselves the objective of improving the quality of our statistics and publications, along with their clarity and accessibility, bringing them within reach of the broadest possible audience.