L 318/8 Official Journal of the European Communities 27.11.98 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Protocol (No 3) on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Statute’) and in particular to Article 54 thereof, Having regard to the recommendation of the European Central Bank (the ‘ECB’) ("), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia- ment (%), Having regard to the opinion of the Commission (3), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 106(6) of the Treaty establishing the European Community and in Article 42 of the Statute, (1) Whereas Article 5.1 of the Statute requires the ECB, assisted by the national central banks, to collect either from the competent national author- ities or directly from economic agents the statistical information which is necessary for the tasks of the European System of Central Banks (hereinafter referred to as the ‘ESCB’) to be performed; whereas, to facilitate the execution of these tasks, set out in Article 105 of the Treaty, and in particular the conduct of monetary policy, this statistical informa- tion is used primarily for the production of aggre- gated statistical information, for which the identity of individual economic agents is irrelevant, but may also be used at the level of individual economic agents; whereas Article 5.2 of the Statute requires the national central banks to carry out, to the extent possible, the tasks described in Article 5.1 of the Statute; whereas Article 54 of the Statute requires the Council to define the natural and legal persons subject to reporting requirements, the confidentiality regime and the appropriate provi- sions for enforcement; whereas the national central banks may cooperate with other competent author- ities, including national statistical institutes and market regulators, for the purposes of Article 5.1 of the Statute; Whereas, in order for statistical information to be effective as an instrument for the performance of the tasks of the ESCB, definitions and procedures ) () OJ C 246, 6. 8. 1998, p. 12. () OJ C 328, 26. 10. 1998. () Opinion delivered on 8 October 1998 (not yet published in the Official Journal). Bank for its collection need to be structured so that the ECB has the ability and flexibility to avail itself in a timely manner of high-quality statistics which reflect changing economic and financial conditions and take account of the burden imposed on reporting agents; whereas in so doing attention must be paid not only to the performance of the ESCB’s tasks and its independence but also to keeping the burden placed on the reporting agents to a minimum; Whereas it is therefore desirable to define a refer- ence reporting population in terms of categories of economic units and statistical applications involved, to which the statistical powers of the ECB is confined and from which the ECB determines the actual reporting population through its regula- tory power; Whereas a homogeneous reporting population is necessary for the production of the consolidated balance sheet of the Monetary Financial Institu- tions sector of the participating Member States, the principal aim of which is to provide the ECB with a comprehensive statistical picture of monetary developments in the participating Member States, seen as one economic territory; whereas the ECB has established and maintains a List of Monetary Financial Institutions for statistical purposes based on a common definition of these institutions; Whereas the said common definition for statistical purposes specifies that Monetary Financial Institu- tions comprise credit institutions as defined in Community law, and all other resident financial institutions whose business is to receive deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits from entities other than Monetary Financial Institutions and, for their own account (at least in economic terms), to grant credits and/or to make investments in secur- ities; Whereas those post office giro institutions which may not fulfil the common definition for statistical purposes of Monetary Financial Institutions may nevertheless need to be made subject to the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements in the field of