Atilla Arda

Counsel for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Amsterdam.

Atilla Arda joined the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2007. His main responsibility is consulting for national central banks on central banking legislation. Arda holds an LL.M degree from the University of Amsterdam, where he is a Ph.D. candidate.

Work
Before joining the IMF Arda worked six years for the Bank of the Netherlands (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB), where he held a Senior Legal Counsel position. As such he was involved mainly in corporate and central bank governance issues, and the law of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). A substantial part of Arda’s work concerned the European System of Central Banks and DNB’s governance issues. In that capacity, he provided legal advice to the President of DNB in preparation of his meetings as member of the ECB’s Governing Council and General Council, and to other DNB representatives in EU and ESCB committees, such as the EU Economic and Financial Committee and the ESCB Banking Supervision Committee. Furthermore, he contributed to the workings of the Legal Committee of the ESCB and provided technical assistance to central banks in other countries.

Prior to DNB, Arda worked for the Legal Aid Council in the region covered by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal (1995-1998). Furthermore, he was a member of the City Council of Amsterdam (1997-2002) for ‘Democraten66’ (D66). Besides being deputy chairman of D66 in the City Council, Arda was their spokesman in the standing committees for Financial Affairs and Economic Affairs, among others. Moreover, during this period Arda was (deputy) chairman of the City Council’s Audit Committee.

Scholarly Work
Besides being Consulting Counsel for the IMF, Arda is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam. The working title of Arda’s thesis is “National Sovereignty under the European Economic and Monetary Union – a legal analysis of EU Member States’ competences under EMU”. His English-language publications may be found on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).

Arda contributed to the updated and revised edition of 'Smit & Herzog on the Law of the European Union'. His contribution consists of a provision by provision commentary on the chapter on 'monetary policy' (Articles 105-111) of the EC Treaty. Moreover, Arda is Honorary Fellow of the Association of Fellows and Legal Scholars of the Center For International Legal Studies in Salzburg, Austria, and in the academic years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 he was awarded the Hijmans Scholarship by the University of Amsterdam.

Community Service
Arda has served on many boards and continues to find participation in community service very much a part of his life.

For eight years, on appointment by the Minister of Justice, Arda was a member of the Supervisory Board of the TBS Institution Oostvaarderskliniek for mentally disordered offenders. As a Board Member Arda’s main responsibilities were mediation between prisoners and the institution, and judging complaints by prisoners against the institution.

Furthermore, Arda was a member of the NJCM Working Group on European Union. NJCM is the Dutch section of the International Commission of Jurists. Arda was also a member of the boards of several foundations: Volunteer Agency Amsterdam (1994-2001) helps finding voluntary work, Kulsan (1999-2004) presents art and culture from Turkey to the Netherlands, Ar@besk (2002-2004) runs a virtual museum on Islamic art and culture.

Personal
Arda was born in Istanbul (Turkey) in 1970. Early 1973 his parents brought him to Amsterdam (The Netherlands), where he has lived until moving to Washington, DC, in 2007. Arda is married and father of a son (2001) and daughter (2004).