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
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),
In cooperation with the European Parliament (2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),
Whereas the functioning of the internal market requires statistical standards applicable to the identification of units and the collection, transmission and publication of national and Community statistics in order to make reliable and comparable information available to enterprises, financial institutions, governments and all other operators in the internal market;
Whereas statistical information on the production system will be necessary to enterprises for assessing their competitiveness and be useful to the Community institutions in the prevention of distortion of competition;
Whereas in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity the creation of common statistical norms that permit the production of harmonized data is an action which can only be undertaken efficiently at Community level and whereas those norms will be applied in each Member State under the authority of the bodies and institutions in charge of compiling official statistics;
Whereas only if the Member States use common definitions of statistical units will it be possible to provide integrated statistical information with the reliability, speed, flexibility and degree of detail required for the management of the internal market;
Whereas provision should be made for the Member States to be able, in order to meet specific requirements, to retain or introduce other statistical units in their national nomenclatures for the observation and analysis of the production system;
Whereas the choice of statistical units to be used in particular enquiries or analyses will be determined in specific texts;
Whereas utilization of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Communities hereafter referred to as NACE Rev. 1 provided for in Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 (4) and application of the European System of Integrated Economic Accounts (ESA) require standard definitions of statistical units for registers, surveys and the presentation and analysis of statistics;
Whereas the Committee set up by Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 is competent for the 'elaboration of guidelines for classifying statistical units in accordance with NACE Rev. 1' but the units must be defined elsewhere;
Whereas it is vital that the statistical units classified according to the NACE Rev. 1 be defined in the same way in all Member States in order to ensure comparability between the corresponding national and Community statistics;
Whereas it is desirable to limit the number of statistical units used for the production system;
Whereas the international comparability of economic statistics requires that the Member States and the Community institutions use statistical units which are directly linked to the descriptions given in the introduction to the United Nations International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC REV 3) and the United Nations System of National Accounts documents;
Whereas the production system is made up of all entities involved in production and all economic and financial operations carried out by those entities;
Whereas the introduction of strict application of these units throughout the Community requires a transitional period,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
A list of statistical units (hereinafter referred to as 'statistical units of the production system') as set out in the Annex hereto together with the criteria used, the definitions of the units and explanatory notes is hereby established.
Article 2
The definitions of the statistical units of the production system shall be used by the Member States and the Commission to identify the units with a view to collecting, transmitting, publishing and analysing statistical data on the production system, particularly those connected with NACE Rev. 1.
Article 3
From 1 January 1994, for the objectives referred to in Article 2, Member States shall use the definitions referred to in Article 1 for statistics relating to situations subsequent to that date.
Article 4
1. During a transitional period running from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 1995, a Member State may, for statistics relating to that period, use statistical units of the production system other than those provided for in Article 1. In such cases the statistical data to be sent to the Commission during the transitional period shall be adapted and transmitted to conform as closely as possible to the Annex.
2. The Commission may, in exceptional circumstances, at the request of a Member State and for duly substantiated technical or practical reasons, extend the transitional period until no later than 31 December 1997.
Article 5
After the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 4 the Commission may, pursuant to the prodcedure laid down in Article 6, authorize a Member State to use other statistical units of the production system.
Article 6
Measures for implementing this Regulation, including those for adaptation to economic and technical developments concerning in particular the statistical units of the production system, the criteria used and the definitions specified in the Annex, shall be determined in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 7.
Article 7
1. The representative of the Commission shall submit to the Statistical Programme' Committee set up by Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (5) 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.
2. The Commission shall adopt measures which shall 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, the Commission shall defer application of the measures which it has decided for a period of three months from the date of such communication.
3. The Council, acting by qualified majority, may take a different decision within the time limit referred to in paragraph 2.
Article 8
The statistical units of the production system referred to in a Community act governing Community statistics shall be interpreted in accordance with the concepts and terminology of this Regulation.
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, 15 March 1993.