European Central Bank ECB, secondary legislation: key for subscription of the capital

OBJECTIVE: to ensure the practical functioning of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the European Central Bank (ECB). SUBSTANCE: the key for subscription of the capital of the ECB determines the share of each central bank in the pooling of external reserves, the weights in voting in the ECB Council on financial matters and, in particular, the distribution of the monetary income of the ESCB. The subject of the proposal for a Council Decision is the rules which the Commission must follow when it provides the statistical data for the establishment of the key. The rules include the definition and sources of the data on GDP and population to be used, and the determination of the method of calculation. When the ECB is established, it will have to determine the key by rounding up the percentages which result from the Decision to the nearest multiple of 0.05 percentage points. The required data should be provided to the EMI before the day the establishment of the ECB becomes effective. The key will have to be adjusted every five years. �