Summary

On accession to the European Union, the objective of the national central bank will be to maintain price stability. However, already during the pre-accession phase, the central bank of a candidate country should observe the criteria accepted in the European Union.

Under the Treaty Establishing the European Community, the tasks with the purpose of maintaining price stability should be performed and primarily monetary-political decisions should be taken independent of external influences. The independence of the central bank may be described through functional, institutional, personal and economic criteria. If all these elements exist, the central bank may be regarded as independent in the meaning of Article 108 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community.

Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty under which overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility with the central banks of the member states in favour of central governments or local authorities are prohibited and any measures establishing privileged access to credit institutions are prohibited are particularly important for the national central bank. Derogation from the rule is only possible based on the relatively high credit rating of the borrower.

The activities of the central bank should be guided by the principle of free movement of capital, except for limitations established in public interests. The most important of them for the central bank is the establishment of the credibility rules for credit institutions and supervision of their implementation, as well as the collection of statistics. In other cases where the free movement of capital is restricted, the central bank usually plays an advisory role. In certain cases, the central bank may co-operate with the executive power in order to balance payments or to ensure the effective application of economic sanctions.