Schedules for the meetings of the Governing Council and the General Council of the ECB and the related press conferences in 2003

The Governing Council has agreed that in 2003 its meetings will continue to be held, as a rule, on the Thursday of the first and third week of each month. As in 2002, exceptions to this rule are envisaged in order to accommodate special holiday situations.

As announced on 8 November 2001, the stance of the ECB's monetary policy will continue to be assessed, as a rule, only at the first meeting of each month. Accordingly, interest rate decisions will normally be taken during that meeting. At the second meeting of each month, the Governing Council will deal with issues relating to other tasks and responsibilities of the ECB and the Eurosystem. Obviously, if warranted by the circumstances, the Governing Council can still decide to change the key ECB interest rates at any time, regardless of previously scheduled meetings. However, the meeting on 31 July 2003 will include a monetary policy discussion in place of an early August meeting and, therefore, a press release on the ECB's monetary policy decisions will be issued on 31 July 2003.

Also, in line with established practices, two meetings will again be held outside Frankfurt: one in Rome on 3 April 2003 hosted by the Banca d'Italia, and one in Lisbon on 2 October 2003 hosted by the Banco de Portugal.

In addition, the General Council has agreed that the current practice of having quarterly meetings is to be maintained.

Finally, the current pattern of press conferences will continue, i.e. they will be held after the first Governing Council meeting of each month, except in August.