European Central Bank IIa: Article III-79 draft Constitution

The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the European Central Bank (ECB) were part of the all-encompassing draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

But did the European Convention propose any material or stylistic change to the existing provisions?

We look at the contents of the institutional basics in draft Constitution Article III-79.

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Article III-79 of the draft Constitution, proposed by the European Convention, corresponds with Article 107 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC), and it is located in Part III ‘The policies and functioning of the Union’, Title III ‘Internal policies and action’, Chapter II ‘Economic and monetary policy’, Section 2 ‘Monetary policy’.

Article III-79 draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe is found in OJ 18.7.2003 C 169/42─43:

Article III-79 Draft Constitution

1. The European System of Central Banks shall be composed of the European Central Bank and of the national central banks.

2. The European Central Bank shall have legal personality.

3. The European System of Central Banks shall be governed by the decision-making bodies of the European Central Bank, which shall be the Governing Council and the Executive Board.

4. The Statute of the European System of Central Banks is laid down in the Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank.

5. Articles 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 17, 18, 19.1, 22, 23, 24, 26, 32.2, 32.3, 32.4, 32.6, 33.1(a) and 36 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank may be amended by European laws:

(a) either on a proposal from the Commission after consultation of the European Central Bank;

(b) or on a recommendation from the European Central Bank after consultation of the Commission.

6. The Council of Ministers shall adopt the European regulations and decisions laying down the measures referred to in Articles 4, 5.4, 19.2, 20, 28.1, 29.2, 30.4 and 34.3 of the Statute of the System of European Central Banks and the European Central Bank. It shall act after consulting the European Parliament:

(a) either on a proposal from the Commission after consulting the European Central Bank;

(b) or on a recommendation from the European Central Bank after consulting the Commission.

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Texts compared

The following differences can be noted between the current Article 107 TEC and Article III-79 draft Constitution:

The draft Constitution spells out the acronyms ESCB and ECB in full, for ease of reading.
In paragraph 4, the draft Constitution defined more exactly in which Protocol the ESCB Statute lay hidden; namely ‘the Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank’.

In paragraph 5, the simplified revision of certain provisions of the ESCB Statute referred to the existing Articles. This left the detailed work to the coming intergovernmental conference, if changes to the Statute were to be made. The Convention, preoccupied by the main institutional building-blocks of the European Union, left only a rudimentary collection of eight draft protocols and declarations in all.

The legal instruments to be used were defined as European laws. The two-pronged approach, either a recommendation from the ECB or a proposal from the Commission, was maintained, although they were mentioned in reverse order. No mention was made of the European Parliament, whereas the assent of the EP is required currently. On the other hand, paragraph 5 did not say that the Statute amendments were to be adopted by the Council (alone).

Was it a slip to drop the words ‘by the Council’, or did the Convention really mean to introduce the ordinary legislative procedure (European laws, with no qualification) for these enumerated simplified changes to the ESCB Statute?

On the other hand, although the potential scope for changes looked insignificant, when we studied Article 107(5) TEC, the ESCB Statute is, in principle, a treaty level document, so any exemption to normal treaty amending procedures (IGC and ratifications) might be seen as a serious matter.

The more important complementary legislation in paragraph 6 was re-written in the same manner as the preceding paragraph, but here the European regulations and decisions were to be adopted by the Council of Ministers, after consulting the European Parliament (as currently).

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The next post is going to look at some legal materials concerning the European Convention proposal. With luck, we might even find an answer to the baffling legislative ‘minutiae’ mentioned above.


Ralf Grahn