Council Regulation (EC) No 332/2002Show full title

Council Regulation (EC) No 332/2002

of 18 February 2002

establishing a facility providing medium-term financial assistance for Member States' balances of payments

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 308 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, presented following consultation with the Economic and Financial Committee(1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament(2),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank(3),

Whereas:

(1) The second subparagraph of Article 119(1) and Article 119(2) of the Treaty provide that, acting on a recommendation from the Commission made after consulting the Economic and Financial Committee, the Council will grant mutual assistance where a Member State is in difficulties or is seriously threatened with difficulties as regards its balance of payments. Article 119 does not define the instrument to be used for granting the mutual assistance envisaged.

(2) It should be possible for the operation of lending to a Member State to take place soon enough to encourage that Member State to adopt, in good time in a situation where orderly exchange rate conditions prevail, economic policy measures likely to prevent the occurrence of an acute balance of payments crisis and to support its efforts towards convergence.

(3) Each loan to a Member State should be linked to the adoption by that Member State of economic policy measures designed to re-establish or ensure a sustainable balance of payments situation and to adapt it to the gravity of the balance of payments situation in that State and to the way in which it develops.

(4) Appropriate procedures and instruments should be provided for in advance to enable the Community and Member States to ensure that, if required, financial medium-term assistance is provided quickly, especially where circumstances call for immediate action.

(5) In order to finance assistance that has been granted, the Community needs to be able to use its creditworthiness to borrow resources that will be placed at the disposal of the Member States concerned in the form of loans. Operations of this kind are necessary to the achievement of the objectives of the Community as defined in the Treaty, especially the harmonious development of economic activities in the Community as a whole.

(6) To this end, a single facility providing medium-term financial assistance for Member States' balances of payments was established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1969/88(4).

(7) Since 1 January 1999 the Member States participating in the single currency no longer qualify for medium-term financial assistance. However, the financial assistance facility should be retained in order to meet not only the potential needs of the present Member States which have not adopted the euro but also the needs of new Member States until such time as they adopt the euro.

(8) The introduction of the single currency has led to a substantial reduction in the number of Member States eligible for the instrument. A downwards revision of the present ceiling of EUR 16 billion is therefore justified. The loan ceiling should, though, be kept at a sufficiently high level in order to satisfy properly the simultaneous needs of several Member States. A reduction in the loan ceiling from EUR 16 billion to EUR 12 billion seems apt to meet this need and also to take account of forthcoming enlargements of the European Union.

(9) The glaring imbalance between the number of potential beneficiaries of the loans during the third stage of economic and monetary union and the number of countries capable of financing them makes it difficult to maintain direct financing of loans granted by all the other Member States. These loans should therefore be financed exclusively by way of recourse to capital markets and financial institutions, these having now attained a stage of development and maturity which should enable them to undertake such financing.

(10) The arrangements for using the facility should also be clarified in the light of experience gained and account should be taken of the development of international financial markets and of the technical possibilities and constraints inherent in recourse to these sources of financing.

(11) It is for the Council to decide whether to grant a loan or appropriate financing facility, its average duration, its total amount and the amounts of the successive instalments. However, the characteristics of the instalments, duration and type of interest rate, should be fixed by common agreement between the beneficiary Member State and the Commission. If the Commission takes the view that the loan characteristics desired by that Member State result in financing that is incompatible with the technical constraints imposed by capital markets or financial institutions, it must be able to propose alternative financing arrangements.

(12) In order to finance loans granted under this Regulation, the Commission should be authorised to contract on behalf of the European Community borrowings on capital markets or from financial institutions.

(13) The financial assistance facility established by Regulation (EEC) No 1969/88 should be adapted accordingly. In the interests of clarity, that Regulation should be replaced.

(14) For the adoption of this Regulation, which provides for the granting of Community loans financed exclusively with funds raised on the capital markets and not by the other Member States, the Treaty provides no powers other than those of Article 308,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

(1)

OJ C 180 E, 26.6.2001, p. 199.

(2)

Opinion delivered on 6 September 2001 (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(3)

OJ C 151, 22.5.2001, p. 18.

(4)

OJ L 178, 8.7.1988, p. 1. Regulation as amended by the 1994 Act of Accession.