REGULATION (EC) No 295/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 11 March 2008
concerning structural business statistics
(recast)
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (2),
Whereas:
(1)
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics (3) has been significantly amended on several occasions (4). Now that new amendments are being made to that Regulation, it is desirable, for reasons of clarity and rationalisation, that the provisions in question should be recast.
(2)
Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 established a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community.
(3)
Decision No 2367/2002/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 December 2002 on the Community statistical programme 2003 to 2007 (5) adopted the programme to be guided by the principal Community policy priorities of economic and monetary union, European Union enlargement and competitiveness, regional policy, sustainable development and the social agenda. Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises form an essential part of this programme.
(4)
This Regulation should provide for the continuation of existing statistical support for decisions in current policy areas and to satisfy the additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives, and from the ongoing review of statistical priorities and of the relevance of the statistics produced, with a view to making best use of available resources and minimising response burdens. Special attention should be paid to the impact on business caused by Community energy and environmental policies, such as those embodied by the REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (6). Cooperation and the exchange of best practices between national statistical institutes should be encouraged in order to ensure a more efficient use of administrative data sources.
(5)
There is an increasing need for data on services, in particular business services. Statistics are needed for the economic analysis and policy formulation on what is the most dynamic sector of modern economies, especially in terms of its potential for growth and employment creation. The Lisbon European Council meeting of 23 and 24 March 2000 highlighted the importance of services. The measurement of turnover broken down to detailed service products is a necessary prerequisite for a true understanding of the services’ role in the economy. The Stockholm European Council meeting of 23 and 24 March 2001 concluded that the creation of effectively functioning internal markets for services is one of Europe’s highest priorities. Statistics by detailed service products on cross-border trade are essential for monitoring the functioning of internal markets for services, evaluating the competitiveness of services and assessing the impact of barriers on trade in services.
(6)
There is a need for data on business demography, particularly since they are an element of the structural indicators established for monitoring the achievements concerning the goals set by the Lisbon Strategy. In addition, harmonised data on business demography and on its impact on employment are necessary to substantiate policy recommendations for the support of entrepreneurship.
(7)
There is also a need for a flexible tool within the statistical framework which can bring about a quick and timely response to emerging user needs resulting from the increasingly dynamic, innovative and complex characteristics of the knowledge-based economy. Linking such ad hoc data collections with the ongoing collection of data on structural business statistics would bring added value to the information gathered in both surveys and could reduce the total burden on respondents by avoiding the duplication of data collection.
(8)
It is necessary to provide for a procedure for the adoption of measures for the implementation of this Regulation in order to enable the rules for the collection and statistical processing of data and for the processing and transmission of the results to be clarified further.
(9)
The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (7).
(10)
In particular, the Commission should be empowered to: update the list of characteristics in the Annexes; establish the frequency of the compilation of the statistics, the rules for flagging data as contributions to European totals only (CETO), the first reference year for the compilation of the results, and the breakdown of results, in particular the classifications to be used and the combination of the size classes; update the periods of time for the transmission of data; adapt the breakdown of activities and products to amendments or revisions of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) and classification of products by activity (CPA); adopt measures on the basis of the evaluation of pilot studies; change the lower limit for the reference population in Annex VIII; and establish criteria for the evaluation of quality. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.
(11)
Since the objective of this Regulation, namely to provide harmonised data on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Subject matter
This Regulation establishes a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community.
The purpose of the compilation of statistics shall be, in particular, to analyse:
(a)
the structure and evolution of the activities of businesses;
(b)
the factors of production used and other elements allowing business activity, competitiveness and performance to be measured;
(c)
the regional, national, Community and international development of businesses and markets;
(d)
business conduct;
(e)
small and medium-sized enterprises; and
(f)
specific characteristics of enterprises related to particular breakdown of activities.
Article 2
Scope
1. This Regulation shall cover all market activities in Sections B to N and P to S of the common statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community as established by Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 (hereinafter referred to as NACE Rev. 2).
2. Statistical units of the types listed in Section I of the Annex to Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community (8) which are classified under one of the activities referred to in paragraph 1 shall be included in the scope of this Regulation. The use of particular units for the compilation of statistics is specified in the Annexes to this Regulation.
Article 3
Modules
1. The statistics to be compiled for the areas referred to in Article 1 shall be grouped as modules.
2. The modules in this Regulation shall be:
(a)
a common module for annual structural statistics, as defined in Annex I;
(b)
a detailed module for structural statistics in industry, as defined in Annex II;
(c)
a detailed module for structural statistics in trade, as defined in Annex III;
(d)
a detailed module for structural statistics in construction, as defined in Annex IV;
(e)
a detailed module for structural statistics in insurance, as defined in Annex V;
(f)
a detailed module for structural statistics on credit institutions, as defined in Annex VI;
(g)
a detailed module for structural statistics on pension funds, as defined in Annex VII;
(h)
a detailed module for structural statistics on business services, as defined in Annex VIII;
(i)
a detailed module for structural statistics on business demography, as defined in Annex IX;
(j)
a flexible module for the conduct of a specific and limited ad hoc data collection of enterprise characteristics.
3. The following information shall be laid down in each module:
(a)
the activities for which the statistics are to be compiled, drawn from the coverage indicated in Article 2(1);
(b)
the types of statistical unit to be used for the compilation of the statistics, drawn from the list of statistical units referred to in Article 2(2);
(c)
lists of characteristics for which statistics are to be compiled for the areas referred to in Article 1 and the reference periods for those characteristics;
(d)
the frequency of the compilation of the statistics, which shall be annual or multiannual. If multiannual, compilation shall take place at least once every 10 years;
(e)
the timetable showing the first reference years for the statistics to be compiled;
(f)
the standards relating to representativeness and quality evaluation;
(g)
the period of time starting from the end of the reference period within which the statistics are to be transmitted;
(h)
the maximum length of the transitional period which may be conceded.
4. The use of the flexible module referred to in paragraph 2(j) shall be planned in close cooperation with Member States. Its scope, list of characteristics, reference period, activities to be covered and quality requirements shall be decided by the Commission in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 12(2) at least 12 months before the beginning of the reference period. The Commission shall also specify the need for the information and the impact of the data collection in respect of the burden on businesses and the costs to the Member States.
In order to limit the burden on businesses and the costs to the Member States, the size of the data collection shall be restricted to a maximum of 20 enterprise characteristics or questions, to a maximum of 25 000 respondent enterprises across the European Union, and to a maximum average individual respondent input of 1,5 hours. Ad hoc data collection shall include a representative number of Member States. When only results at European level are needed, the Commission may set up a European sampling approach to ensure a minimum burden and minimum costs.
The costs of ad hoc data collection may be co-financed by the Commission using established procedures.
Article 4
Pilot studies
1. A series of pilot studies shall be instituted by the Commission and carried out by Member States on a voluntary basis as specified in the Annexes. The Commission shall award grants to national authorities within the meaning of Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics (9), following a call for proposals.
2. The pilot studies shall be carried out in order to assess the relevance and feasibility of obtaining data. The results of the pilot studies shall be evaluated by the Commission, taking into account the benefits of the availability of the data in relation to the cost of collection and the burden on businesses.
3. The Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council of the results of pilot studies.
4. The measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation by supplementing it on the basis of the evaluation of the pilot studies, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 12(3).
Article 5
Acquisition of data
1. Member States shall acquire the necessary data for the observation of the characteristics in the lists referred to in the modules in Article 3.
2. Member States may acquire the necessary data using a combination of the different sources specified below, applying the principle of administrative simplification:
(a)
compulsory surveys: the legal units, to which the statistical units called on by the Member States belong or of which they are composed, shall be obliged to give accurate and complete information within the prescribed deadlines;
(b)
other sources which are at least equivalent as regards accuracy and quality;
(c)
statistical estimation procedures where some of the characteristics have not been observed for all of the units.
3. In order to reduce response burdens, the national authorities and the Commission (Eurostat) shall, under the limits and the conditions fixed by each Member State and by the Commission in their respective spheres of competence, have access to administrative data sources covering the fields of activity of their own public administrations to the extent that these data are necessary to meet the accuracy requirements referred to in Article 6. In addition, wherever feasible, appropriate administrative data shall be used to meet the reporting requirements of this Regulation.
4. Member States and the Commission, within their respective fields of competence, shall promote the conditions for increased use of electronic data transmission and automatic data-processing.
Article 6
Accuracy
1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the data transmitted reflect the structure of the population of the statistical units laid down in the Annexes.
2. Quality evaluation shall be carried out comparing the benefits of the availability of the data with the costs of collection and the burden on business, especially on small enterprises.
3. Member States shall transmit to the Commission, at its request, all the information necessary for the evaluation referred to in paragraph 2.
Article 7
Comparability
1. From the collected and estimated data Member States shall produce comparable results, following the breakdown stipulated for each module in Article 3 and the respective Annexes.
2. In order that Community aggregates may be compiled, Member States shall produce component national results according to the levels of NACE Rev. 2, laid down in the Annexes, or determined in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 12(3).
Article 8
Transmission of results
1. Member States shall transmit the results provided for in Article 7 of this Regulation, including confidential data, to the Commission (Eurostat) in accordance with the existing Community provisions on transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality, in particular Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 (10). Those Community provisions shall apply to the treatment of the results, in so far as they include confidential data.
2. The results shall be transmitted in an appropriate technical format, within a period of time starting from the end of the reference period, which shall be laid down in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 12(3) for the modules provided for in Article 3(2)(a) to (h) and (j) and shall be no longer than 18 months. For the module provided for in Article 3(2)(i), the period of time shall be no longer than 30 months or 18 months as laid down in Annex IX, Section 9. In addition, a small number of estimated preliminary results shall be transmitted within a period of time starting from the end of the reference period which shall be laid down in accordance with that procedure for the modules provided for in Article 3(2)(a) to (g) and shall be no longer than 10 months. For the module provided for in Article 3(2)(i), the period of time for preliminary results shall be no longer than 18 months.
3. In order to minimise the burden on businesses and the costs to the national statistical authorities, the Member States may mark data for use as a contribution to European totals only (CETO). Eurostat shall not publish those data, nor shall Member States mark nationally published data with a CETO flag. The use of the CETO flag shall be dependent on the individual Member State’s share of the EU total of value added in the business economy as follows:
(a)
Germany, France, Italy, and United Kingdom: CETO-flagged data may be sent for NACE Rev. 2 class level and for the size class breakdown at NACE Rev. 2 group level. No more than 15 % of the cells may be marked.
(b)
Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Finland and Sweden: CETO-flagged data may be sent for NACE Rev. 2 class level and for the size class breakdown at NACE Rev. 2 group level. No more than 25 % of the cells may be marked. In addition, if, in any of these Member States, the share of a NACE Rev. 2 class or of a size class of NACE Rev. 2 group is less than 0,1 % of the business economy of the Member State concerned, those data may additionally be sent as CETO-flagged.
(c)
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia: CETO-flagged data may be sent for NACE Rev. 2 group and class level and for the size class breakdown at NACE Rev. 2 group level. No more than 25 % of the cells at group level may be marked.
The measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it, relating to reviewing the rules for the CETO flag and grouping the Member States, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 12(3) by 29 April 2013 and every five years thereafter.
Article 9
Information on implementation
Member States shall transmit to the Commission, at its request, any relevant information with regard to the implementation of this Regulation in the Member States.
Article 10
Transitional periods
1. During the transitional periods, derogations from the provisions of the Annexes may be granted in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 12(2) insofar as the national statistical systems require major adaptations.
2. Supplementary transitional periods may be granted to a Member State for the compilation of statistics where it is impossible to comply with the provisions of this Regulation because of derogations granted pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 of 22 July 1993 on Community coordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes (11).
Article 11
Implementing measures
1. The following measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 12(2):
(a)
establishing the definitions of the characteristics and their relevance for certain activities (Article 3 and Annex I, Section 4, paragraph 2);
(b)
establishing the definition of the reference period (Article 3);
(c)
establishing the appropriate technical format for the transmission of results (Article 8 and Annex I, Section 9, paragraph 2);
(d)
establishing the transitional period and derogations from the provisions of this Regulation granted during that period (Article 10 and Annex I, Section 11, Annex II, Section 10, Annex III, Section 9, Annex VIII, Section 8 and Annex IX, Section 13);
(e)
establishing the list of characteristics to be transmitted using the common statistical classification of economic activities within the European Community as established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 (12) (hereinafter referred to as NACE Rev.1.1) for the year 2008 and the details regarding the production of results (Annex I, Section 9, paragraph 2);
(f)
establishing the use of the flexible module referred to in Articles 3(2)(j) and 3(4); and
(g)
establishing the procedures to be followed in relation to the ad hoc data collections referred to in Annex II, Section 4, paragraphs 3 and 4, Annex III, Section 3, paragraph 3, and Annex IV, Section 3, paragraph 3.
2. The following measures necessary for implementation of this Regulation, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 12(3):
(a)
updating the lists of characteristics, and preliminary results in so far as such updating, after a quantitative assessment, does not imply an increase in the number of units surveyed nor a burden on the units which is disproportionate to the anticipated results (Articles 4 and 8 and Annex I, Section 6, Annex II, Section 6, Annex III, Section 6, Annex IV, Section 6);
(b)
establishing the frequency of the compilation of the statistics (Article 3);
(c)
establishing the rules for flagging data as CETO (Article 8(3));
(d)
establishing the first reference year for the compilation of the results (Article 8 and Annex I, Section 5);
(e)
establishing the breakdown of results, in particular the classifications to be used and the combinations of the size classes (Article 7 and Annex VIII, Section 4, paragraphs 2 and 3, Annex IX, Section 8, paragraphs 2 and 3, and Annex IX, Section 10);
(f)
updating the periods of time for the transmission of data (Article 8 and Annex I, Section 8, paragraph 1, and Annex VI, Section 7);
(g)
adapting the breakdown of activities to amendments or revisions of the NACE and the breakdown of products to amendments or revisions of the CPA;
(h)
those adopted on the basis of the evaluation of pilot studies (Article 4(4));
(i)
changing the lower limit for the reference population (Annex VIII, Section 3); and
(j)
establishing the criteria for the evaluation of quality (Article 6 and Annex I, Section 6, Annex II, Section 6, Annex III, Section 6 and Annex IV, Section 6).
Article 12
Committee
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities set up by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (13).
2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.
The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.
3. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5a(1) to (4) and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.
Article 13
Report
1. The Commission shall, by 29 April 2011 and every three years thereafter, submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the statistics compiled pursuant to this Regulation and in particular on their quality and the burden on business.
2. In the reports referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall propose any amendments it considers necessary.
Article 14
Repeal
1. Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 shall be repealed. Article 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 shall also be repealed.
2. References made to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation from the reference year 2008 onwards and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex XI. The provisions of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 shall continue to apply as regards the collection, compilation and transmission of data for reference years up to and including 2007.
Article 15
Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Strasbourg, 11 March 2008.