The progress made by the Member States with a derogation in fulfilling their obligations regarding the achievement of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is assessed by the ECB in the Convergence Reports. These reports must include an examination of the compatibility between the national legislation of each Member State with a derogation, including the statutes of its national central bank (NCB), and Articles 130 and 131 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter the “Treaty”) and the relevant Articles of the Statute of the ESCB and the ECB (the “Statute”). This Treaty obligation of Member States with a derogation is also referred to as ‘legal convergence’. When assessing legal convergence, the ECB is not limited to making a formal assessment of the letter of national legislation, but may also consider whether the implementation of the relevant provisions complies with the spirit of the Treaties and the Statute.

In the legal domain, the obligations that must be fulfilled for the achievement of EMU refer in particular to central bank independence and to the NCB’s legal integration into the Eurosystem. To this end, the following issues are examined:

• central bank independence, which includes various types of independence, namely: functional, institutional, personal and financial independence (Article 130 of the Treaty and Articles 7 and 14.2 of the Statute);
• confidentiality (the obligation of professional secrecy for staff under Article 37 of the Statute);
• prohibition on monetary financing (Article 123 of the Treaty);
• prohibition on the privileged access to financial institutions by the public sector (Article 124 of the Treaty);
• compatibility with the single spelling of the euro required by EU legislation;
• legal integration of NCBs into the Eurosystem (in particular as regards Articles 12.1 and 14.3 of the Statute).