ECB Convergence Report 2002

The European Central Bank (ECB) publishes today its Convergence Report 2002, which examines whether Sweden has achieved a high degree of sustainable convergence, as well as the compatibility of its national legislation with the Treaty establishing the European Community and the Statute of the ESCB. For this purpose, the ECB uses the framework applied in the Convergence Reports produced by the European Monetary Institute (EMI) in 1998 and the ECB in 2000. The report contains three chapters. Chapter I describes the key aspects of the examination of economic convergence in 2002, Chapter II assesses the state of economic convergence in Sweden, and Chapter III investigates the compatibility between Sweden's national legislation, including the Sveriges Riksbank Act, with Articles 108 and 109 of the Treaty and the Statute of the ESCB.

In producing this report, the ECB fulfils the requirement of Article 122 (2) in conjunction with Article 121 (1) of the Treaty to report to the Council of the European Union (EU Council) at least once every two years "on the progress made in the fulfilment by the Member States of their obligations regarding the achievement of economic and monetary union". The same mandate has been given to the European Commission and the two reports have been submitted to the EU Council in parallel. As convergence reports for Denmark and the United Kingdom only have to be provided if these Member States so request, in accordance with the relevant protocols annexed to the Treaty, this year's Convergence Report covers Sweden only.

The ECB's Convergence Report 2002 is available in all 11 official Community languages on the ECB's website (http://www.ecb.europa.eu). Hard copies of the report in the different languages can be obtained upon request via the respective national central bank.