Institutional Aspects of the European Central Bank

This chapter discusses the institutional aspects of the European Central Bank (ECB). The first section systematically presents the related European Union (EU) framework and then briefly discusses the legal personality, the seat, as well as the privileges and immunities of the ECB. The following section is on the bodies of the ECB, presenting, in turn, its decision-making bodies (Governing Council, Executive Board and General Council) established by virtue of primary EU law, and its internal bodies established by the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) Regulation (Supervisory Board, Administrative Board of Review and Mediation Panel). The third section then sets out the ECB’s regulatory powers under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the ECB and the SSM Regulation, as well as its sanctioning powers, as laid down in secondary EU law. The fourth section addresses its independence, accountability and transparency both under the TFEU and the Statute and under the SSM Regulation. The final section looks into other important institutional aspects, such as communication between the ECB and other EU institutions, the judicial review of the acts and/or omissions of the ECB and the national central banks, as well as the ECB’s aspects of liability.