Opinion of the European Central Bank of 26 August 2022 on the development and maintenance of a statistical register and related laws (CON/2022/29)

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK of 26 August 2022 on the development and maintenance of a statistical register and related laws (CON/2022/29) Introduction and legal basis

On 28 July 2022 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection for an opinion on a draft law amending the Law on the development and maintenance of a statistical register and related laws (hereinafter the ‘draft law’). The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the third and fourth indents of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC , as the draft law relates to Deutsche Bundesbank and the collection, compilation and distribution of monetary, financial, banking, payment systems and balance of payments statistics. 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.

1. The relevant provisions of the draft law

1 Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions (OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42).

2 See Article 1 of the draft law.

3 Gesetz über den Aufbau und die Führung eines Statistikregisters.

4 Section 10 of the Law on the development and maintenance of a statistical register.

5 Section 10, paragraph 2, first sentence, No 1, of the Law on the development and maintenance of a statistical register. The update concerns the addition of the wording ‘in accordance with Annex VIII of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197’. This update refers to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (OJ L 327, 17.12.2019, p. 1). Annex VIII deals with the ‘variables linked to the detailed topics for the European framework for statistical business registers’. The update replaces the reference to Regulation (EG) 177/2008 which is no longer applicable.

6 Section 10, paragraph 2, first sentence, No 2 of the Law on the development and maintenance of a statistical register.

8 Verwaltungsdatenverwendungsgesetz. Bundesbank to the Federal Statistical Office following the entry into force of Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council . In order to implement the requirement of the Federal Statistical Office to deliver statistical information to Eurostat under Regulation (EU) 2019/2152, the draft law stipulates that the Federal Statistical Office receives from Deutsche Bundesbank, in addition to statistical information relating to credit institutions and specialised credit institutions, statistical information for other parts of the area of financial services relating to central banks, other financial institutions and activities auxiliary to financial intermediation, where such statistical information is at the disposal of Deutsche Bundesbank .

2. Observations

2.1. The ECB welcomes the draft law as it fosters good relationships between the statistical authorities at both the European and the national level . The ECB also welcomes that the draft law does not envisage any additional reporting burden to be imposed on data subjects to provide statistical information to Deutsche Bundesbank and the Federal Statistical Office and clarifies that only statistical information ‘as far as is available at the Deutsche Bundesbank’ must be transmitted to the Federal Statistical Office. 2.2. Furthermore, the ECB welcomes that the draft law aims at enhancing legal certainty, in particular by clarifying that the reference to Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 included in the draft law is of a dynamic nature by referring to the current version of that act. The ECB understands that in German law it should be clarified whether references to other legal acts are dynamic or not, as opposed to Union law which is dynamic by nature . 2.3. Finally, the ECB understands that, as far as the obligation of Deutsche Bundesbank to transmit statistical information to the Federal Statistical Office for other parts of the area of financial service (including central banks) is concerned, Deutsche Bundesbank must only transmit, as far as is available, reference data, which consists of the name, address, legal form, economic sector, place and number of entry in the commercial register, legal entity identifier, and data of the profit and loss account, as well as the recorded data on headcount, as already exhaustively listed in the current version of the Law on the use of administrative data for the purposes of economic statistics .

9 Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (OJ L 327, 17.12.2019, p. 1). 10 The draft law follows the classifications included in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains (OJ L 393, 30.12.2006, p. 1). 11 See Article 5.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and of the European Central Bank; see also recital 11 of Council Regulation (EC) No 951/2009 of 9 October 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank (OJ L 269, 14.10.2009, p. 1), which provides that, in line with Article 5.1 of the Statute, the ESCB and the European Statistical System (ESS) cooperate closely to ensure the coherence necessary to develop, produce and disseminate European statistics. 13 References in Union legal acts to other Union legal acts are always to the version of the latter which is currently in force. 14 Current version of Section 3b of the Law on the use of administrative data for the purposes of economic statistics. This opinion will be published on EUR-Lex. Done at Frankfurt am Main, 26 August 2022. [signed] The President of the ECB Christine LAGARDE