The distribution of distances of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) with respect to the heliomagnetic current sheet is studied. The analysis is carried out for different times during the last solar cycle. We studied first the site of occurrence of all the CMEs for 1980 and 1984--1986. We further considered those CMEs which are associated with interplanetary shocks for the period 1979--1982. Finally, we considered two-ribbon long duration soft X ray events not related with interplanetary shocks and presumably associated with CMEs. We found that during solar minimum the CMEs in general seem better associated with the heliomagnetic current sheet than at solar maximum and that the two-ribbon not shock-related events are poorly associated with it. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993