COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 213 thereof,
Having regard to the draft Regulation submitted by the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (1),
Having regard to the opinion of the European Monetary Institute (2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),
(1) 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 country and/or region;
(2) Whereas the Commission must play a part in the administration of Economic and Monetary Union and, in particular, report to the Council on the progress made by the Member States in fulfilling their obligations for the achievement of Economic and Monetary Union;
(3) Whereas economic accounts are a basic tool for analysing the economic situation of a country and/or region on condition that they are drawn up on the basis of a single set of principles that are not open to differing interpretations;
(4) Whereas the Commission must use aggregates of national accounts for Community administrative and, in particular, budgetary calculations;
(5) Whereas in 1970 an administrative document entitled 'European System of Integrated Economic Accounts` (ESA) was published, covering the field governed by this Regulation, which had been drawn up solely by the Statistical Office of the European Communities and on its responsibility alone; whereas that document was the outcome of several years' work by the Statistical Office of the European Communities, together with Member States' national statistical institutes, to devise a system of national accounts meeting the requirements of the European Communities' economic and social policy, and whereas it constituted the Community version of the United Nations System of National Accounts which had been used by the Community up to that time;
(6) Whereas in order to update the original text a second edition of the document was published in 1979 (hereinafter referred to as 'ESA Second edition`) (4);
(7) Whereas the United Nations Statistical Commission adopted in February 1993 the new System of National Accounts (SNA) so that the results in all member countries of the United Nations should be internationally comparable;
(8) Whereas attention should be paid in the case of environmental accounts to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council of 21 December 1994 entitled 'Directions for the European Union on environmental indicators and green national accounting`;
(9) Whereas the Community cooperates with third countries to mutual advantage, particularly those in the European Economic Area (EEA);
(10) Whereas a European System of Accounts must be established to meet the requirements of Economic and Monetary Union and will have to be used for compiling the national and regional accounts provided for by Community legislation;
(11) Whereas the results of the accounts and tables of all the Member States drawn up according to the system set up by this Regulation must be made available by the Commission to users on precise dates, particularly with regard to monitoring the economic convergence and achieving the closest coordination of the Member States' economic policies;
(12) Whereas the system set up by this Regulation is gradually to replace all other systems as a reference framework of common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the requirements of the Community, so that results that are comparable between the Member States can be obtained;
(13) Whereas these statistical results, must be accessible to citizens in accordance with the principle of transparency;
(14) Whereas the system established by this Regulation, which constitutes a version of the SNA adapted to the structures of the Member States' economies, must follow the layout of the SNA so that the Community's data are comparable with those compiled by its main international partners;
(15) Whereas the dates must be grouped according to broad category of the accounts and tables, and whereas only the information essential to the requirements of the Community must be processed and communicated to the Commission on precise dates;
(16) Whereas, however, in view of the volume and size of the accounts concerned, the level of detail and the geographical coverage, as well as the situation in this respect in the Member States, certain extra periods of time for forwarding data shall be granted exceptionally and temporarily to Member States which objectively are unable to meet the deadlines laid down by this Regulation;
(17) Whereas a decision on how financial intermediation services indirectly measured (Fisim) are to be broken down should be taken at a later date;
(18) Whereas, according to the principle of subsidiarity, the creation of common statistical standards so that comparable information can be produced is a task that can only be dealt with effectively at Community level and whereas such standards will be implemented in each Member State under the aegis of the organizations and institutions responsible for compiling official statistics;
(19) Whereas it is necessary to set up a procedure to adapt and update the provisions of this Regulation in cooperation with the Statistical Programme Committee of the European Community (SPC), established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (5); whereas that adaptation procedure will be limited to amendments which do not increase own resources;
(20) Whereas the Statistical Programme Committee and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB), established by Decision 91/115/EEC (6), have declared themselves in favour of the draft of this Regulation;
(21) Whereas Council Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom of 13 February 1989 on the harmonization of the compilation of gross national product at market prices (GNPmp) (7) stipulates that GNPmp can be comparable only if the definitions and accounting rules of the European System of Integrated Economic Accounts are applied, and whereas Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1553/89 of 29 May 1989 on the definitive uniform arrangements for the collection of own resources accruing from value added tax (8) provides that, in order to calculate the weighted average rate of VAT, the breakdown of transactions liable to tax shall be effected by means of national accounts prepared in accordance with the European System of Integrated Economic Accounts, and whereas for those instruments, and in the context of Council Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 of 22 November 1993 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure (9), Council Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom of 31 October 1994 on the system of the European Communities' own resources (10) and Council Decision 94/729/EC of 31 October 1994 on budgetary discipline (11), a transitional period for implementing the system set up by this Regulation should be provided,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Purpose
1. The purpose of this Regulation is to set up the European System of Accounts 1995 hereinafter referred to as 'ESA 95`, by providing for:
(a) a methodology on common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules, intended to be used for compiling accounts and tables on comparable bases for the purposes of the Community, together with results as required under the terms of Article 3;
(b) a programme for transmitting for Community purposes on precise dates the accounts and tables compiled according to the ESA 95.
2. Taking into account Articles 7 and 8, this Regulation shall apply to all Community acts that refer to the ESA or its definitions.
3. This Regulation does not oblige any Member State to use the ESA 95 in compiling accounts for its own purposes.
Article 2
Methodology
1. The methodology of the ESA 95 referred to in Article 1 (1) (a) is set out in Annex A.
2. Amendments to the ESA 95 methodology which are intended to clarify and improve its content shall be adopted by Commission Decision in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 4, provided that they do not change its underlying concepts, do not require additional resources for their implementation and do not cause an increase in own resources.
3. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the Treaty, the Council shall, not later than 31 December 1997, take a decision on introducing the system for breaking down the financial intermediation services indirectly measured (Fisim) described in Annex I of Annex A, and shall, if appropriate, adopt the necessary measures for the implementation thereof.
Article 3
Transmission to the Commission
1. The Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Statistical Office) the accounts and tables set out in Annex B within the time limits specified for each table.
The extra periods of time granted to certain Member States in accordance with Annex B shall expire not later than 1 January 2005.
The Commission, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee, shall report to the Council not later than 1 July 2003 on the application of the extra periods of time granted in order to verify whether they are still justified. This report shall, if necessary, be accompanied by a Commission proposal again granting extra periods of time to those Member States requiring them.
2. The Member States shall transmit the results of Annex B, including the data which have been declared confidential by Member States in accordance with national legislation or practice concerning statistical confidentiality, under the provisions of Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (12), which governs the confidential treatment of information.
Within the limits set in Article 2 (2), any changes - new tables, countries and/or regions concerned - in the data requested from the Member States may be the subject of Commission Decisions in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 4.
Article 4
Procedure
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee, hereinafter referred to as 'the Committee`.
2. The representative of the Commission shall submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The Committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft, within a time limit which the chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter. The opinion shall be delivered by the majority laid down in Article 148 (2) of the Treaty in the case of decisions which the Council is required to adopt on a proposal from the Commission. The votes of the representatives of the Member States within the Committee shall be weighted in the manner set out in that Article. The chairman shall not vote.
3. The Commission shall adopt measures which apply immediately. However, if these measures are not in accordance with the opinion of the Committee, they shall be communicated by the Commission to the Council forthwith. In that event:
(a) the Commission shall defer application of the measures it has decided by three months from the date of communication;
(b) the Council, acting by a qualified majority, may take a different decision within the time limit laid down in point (a).
Article 5
The Committee's tasks
The Committee shall examine all matters that are raised by its chairman relating to the implementation of this Regulation either on his own initiative or at the request of a Member State.
Article 6
Cooperation with other committees
1. On all matters falling within the competence of the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB), the Commission shall request the opinion of that Committee in accordance with Article 2 of Decision 91/115/EEC.
2. The Commission shall communicate to the Committee on Gross National Product, set up by Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom any information concerning the implementation of this Regulation which is necessary for the performance of its duties.
Article 7
Date of application and of first transmission of data
1. The ESA 95 shall be applied for the first time to data established in accordance with Annex B to be transmitted in April 1999.
2. The data shall be transmitted to the Commission (Statistical Office) in accordance with the time limits laid down in Annex B.
3. In accordance with paragraph 1, until the first transmission based on the ESA 95, Member States shall continue to send to the Commission (Statistical Office) the accounts and tables established by applying the ESA second edition.
4. Without prejudice to Article 19 of Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1552/89 of 29 May 1989 (13) implementing Decision 88/376/EEC, Euratom on the system of the Communities' own resources, the Commission and the Member State concerned shall check that this Regulation is being applied and shall submit the outcome of those checks to the Committee provided for in Article 4 (1) of this Regulation.
Article 8
Transitional provisions
1. For budgetary and own resources purposes and by way of derogation from Article 1 (2) and Article 7, the European system of integrated economic accounts in force within the meaning of Article 1 (1) of Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom and the legal acts relating thereto, in particular Regulations (EEC, Euratom) No 1552/89 and No 1553/89 and Decisions 94/728/EC, Euratom and 94/729/EC, shall be the ESA second edition while Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom remains in force.
2. For the purpose of the Member States' reports to the Commission under the excessive deficit procedure laid down in Regulation (EC) No 3605/93, the European system of integrated economic accounts shall be the ESA second edition until the 1 September 1999 reports.
3. Application of the ESA second edition as laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article shall be ensured by adjusting the data received by virtue of Article 7 (1) on the basis of the ESA 95 to take account of the changes resulting from any differences in concepts, definitions or nomenclatures between the ESA second edition and the ESA 95.
Implementation of this principle shall be established in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Council Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom by December 1996 at the latest.
Article 9
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 25 June 1996.