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EUROPEAN SYSTEM OF CENTRAL BANKS

The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) was established pursuant to the Treaty of Maastricht and the Statutes of the European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank. The ESCB consists of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks of all 27 EU Member States.

The activities of the ECB's decision-making bodies are implemented by the ESCB committees, who also have an important role in the cooperation within the ESCB. The committees are comprised of the representatives of the ECB and the national central banks of the Eurosystem. For instance, the activities of the Banking Supervision Committee also involve national supervision authorities. All national central banks of the non-euro area EU Member States have their experts participating in the meetings of the ESCB committees where issues within the competence of the ECB Governing Council are discussed. The Governing Council lays down the mandates of the committees, which report to the Governing Council via the Executive Board.

The following committees are currently active: the Accounting and Monetary Income Committee, the Banking Supervision Committee, the Banknote Committee, the Budget Committee, the Eurosystem/ESCB Communications Committee, the Information Technology Committee, the Internal Auditors Committee, the International Relations Committee, the Legal Committee, the Market Operations Committee, the Monetary Policy Committee, the Payment and Settlement Systems Committee, the Statistics Committee and the Human Resources Conference.

In addition to the 14 committees, the ESCB has about 50 working groups and other sub-structures:
  • working groups - with fixed-term mandates, report to their committees;
  • sub-working groups - with one-year mandates, report to their working groups;
  • task forces - with specific mandates and terms, report to their committees or working groups.

The ESCB committees meet in two compositions: the Eurosystem and the ESCB, composing either 13 or 14 Member States, respectively. The latter composition also includes the EU candidate countries as observers.