COMMISSION DECISION of 30 November 1998 clarifying Annex A to Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community as concerns the principles for measuring prices and volumes (notified under document number C(1998) 3685) (Text with EEA relevance) (98/715/EC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (1), as amended by Regulation (EC) No 448/98 (2), and in particular Article 2(2) thereof,
(1) Whereas it is necessary to improve the comparability between the Member States in the data for changes in real gross domestic product (GDP), both with a view to the application of Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1467/97 of 7 July 1997 on speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure (3) and the resolution of the European Council on the Stability and Growth Pact (Amsterdam, 17 June 1997) (4) and for the purpose of multilateral surveillance more generally;
(2) Whereas the implementation and supervision of Economic and Monetary Union require comparable, up-to-date and reliable information on the structure and developments in the economic situation of each Member State;
(3) Whereas the Commission must play a part in the administration of Economic and Monetary Union and, in particular, report to the Council on the budgetary situation and the amount of national debt in the Member States;
(4) Whereas the economic accounts in real terms, i.e. adjusted for price changes, are a fundamental tool for analysing a country's economic and budgetary situation, provided they are compiled on the basis of unique principles that are not open to different interpretations; whereas for this purpose the recommendations for the calculation of data at constant prices within the framework of Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 shall be deepened and strengthened;
(5) Whereas the Commission must use national accounts aggregates in real terms for Community policy purposes and, in particular, for the supervision of the stability and growth pact;
(6) Whereas in order to assess the seriousness of the economic recession the Member States must generally take as a reference any annual reduction of real GDP of at least 0,75 %; whereas exceeding the reference value following a serious economic recession is exceptional only if GDP in real terms records an annual reduction of at least 2 %;
(7) Whereas the results of the accounts in real terms of all Member States compiled according to the provisions introduced by this Decision must be made available to users by the Commission at specific dates, in particular with regard to the supervision of economic and monetary convergence;
(8) Whereas the provisions introduced by this Decision are the first steps towards common accounting rules for Member States' accounts in real terms for Community requirements, thereby making it possible to obtain results that are comparable among Member States and of sufficient quality;
(9) Whereas the results of the accounts in real terms for Community requirements must be the subject of statistical treatment and communications to the Commission on dates laid down by Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 and by Council Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 of 22 November 1993 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure (5);
(10) Whereas, however, in view of the importance of the accounts in question and the degree of detail, as well as the situation with regard to statistics in the Member States, additional deadlines for the introduction of these provisions must be granted exceptionally and temporarily to Member States which, objectively, will not be in a position to comply with the rules laid down in this Decision when Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 is implemented;
(11) Whereas the measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee of the European Community (SPC), established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (6), and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB), established by Decision 91/115/EEC (7),
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
Objective
The purpose of this Decision is to clarify the principles for the measurements of prices and volumes contained in Chapter 10 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) No 2223/96, in view of the need to further harmonise price and volume measures.
The clarifications given in the present Decision, shall be used for the data transmitted to Eurostat from the first transmission of data pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 onwards, at least for the data referring to the years 1995 and later.
Article 2
Clarifications to the general principles for the measurement of prices and volumes
Clarifications to the general principles that shall be followed in the measurement of prices and volumes contained in Chapter 10 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) No 2223/96, particularly as concerns the elementary level of aggregation, the choice of index formula and the choice of base year, are laid down in Part I of Annex I to the present Decision.
Article 3
Classification of methods by product
A classification of methods for certain types of products into most appropriate methods, alternatives which may be used if the most appropriate methods cannot be applied, and methods which shall not be used as from the first transmission of data to Eurostat pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 onwards, is laid down in Parts II and III of Annex I to the present Decision.
Article 4
Research programme
For those products for which the classification of methods defined in Article 3 is not stated in Annex I to the present Decision, this classification will be defined taking into account the results of a research programme, which shall be completed by the end of the year 2000, and after decision of the SPC.
Article 5
Transitional periods
Transitional periods for the application of the principles as clarified in Article 2, are laid down, for each Member State, in Annex II to the present Decision.
Member States may ask, in addition, for transitional periods to be granted for the application of the methods referred to in Article 3, which shall be decided at the latest by the end of the year 1998.
In the case of a Member State for which a transitional period is granted, and which presents for a given year a reduction of GDP in real terms calculated according to the national methods in place, the Member State shall assist Eurostat to the fullest possible extent in evaluating the scale of the effect of any deviation from the principles contained in the present Decision.
Article 6
Inventory
Member States shall provide Eurostat, at the latest by the end of the year 2002, with a full inventory of procedures and basic statistics used to measure GDP in real terms and its components. The inventory shall at least cover the methods used in the final accounts.
Article 7
Addressees
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
Done at Brussels, 30 November 1998.