The historical archives of the ECB

We value our history!

The ECB historical archives have been established to preserve the ECB’s institutional memory, to support transparency and to enhance knowledge of the history of Economic and Monetary Union, the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the Eurosystem.

The ECB is committed to preserving documents of historical value and making them available to the public. Owing to the integrated structure of the ESCB, the Eurosystem and the related archives, we work together with the national central banks of EU Member States in achieving this goal.

Are you interested in learning more about the role of the ECB and its predecessors? Do you want to know more about the steps taken towards completing Economic and Monetary Union, and how past decisions still affect your everyday life?

If so, in the ECB historical archives you can access documents held by the ECB which are older than 30 years and have been declassified in accordance with Decision ECB/2023/17.

In the ECB historical archives you can find documents from:

the Committee of Governors of the Central Banks of the Member States of the European Economic Community (1964-93) the European Monetary Cooperation Fund (1973-93) the Delors Committee (1988-89) the European Monetary Institute (1994-98) the European Central Bank (1998-present)

The ECB historical archives also contain audio-visual material and physical artefacts.

Browse each section to learn more about the ECB’s archives and to access declassified documents which have been made available online.