COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 250/2009
of 11 March 2009
implementing Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the definitions of characteristics, the technical format for the transmission of data, the double reporting requirements for NACE Rev.1.1 and NACE Rev.2 and derogations to be granted for structural business statistics
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning structural business statistics (1), and in particular Article 11(1)(a), (c), (d) and (e) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 (2) established a common framework for the production of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community. For reasons of clarity and rationalisation that Regulation has been recast, with substantial amendments to various provisions.
(2)
Commission Regulations (EC) No 2700/98 on the definitions of characteristics for structural business statistics (3) and (EC) No 2702/98 on the technical format for the transmission of structural business statistics (4) must be modified in order to take account of those amendments. For the sake of clarity they should be replaced by this Regulation.
(3)
It is necessary to define the characteristics for structural business statistics in order to produce data comparable and harmonised between Member States.
(4)
It is also necessary to specify the technical format and the procedure for transmission of the structural business statistics listed in Annexes I to IX to Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 in order to produce data comparable and harmonised between Member States, to reduce the risk of errors in the transmission of data and to increase the speed with which the data collected can be processed and made available to users.
(5)
Moreover, it is necessary to specify the requirements for the double reporting of structural business statistics according to NACE Rev.1.1 in addition to the statistics required according to NACE Rev.2 for the reference year 2008.
(6)
Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 provides that derogations from the provisions of the Annexes to that Regulation may be accepted during the transitional periods.
(7)
Some Member States have asked for derogations for the transitional periods from certain provisions of Annexes I, II, III, VIII and IX to Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 in order to put in place the necessary data collection systems or adapt the existing ones so that by the end of the transitional period the provisions of that Regulation will have been met.
(8)
It seems justified to grant those derogations, as the Member States' requests are based on a legitimate need to further adapt their data collection systems.
(9)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
The characteristics referred to in Article 3(3) of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 shall be as defined in Annex I to this Regulation.
When reference is made in these definitions to company accounts, these shall be deemed to refer to the headings laid down in Article 9 (balance sheet), Article 23 (profit and loss account) or Article 43 (notes on the accounts) of the Fourth Council Directive 78/660/EEC on the annual accounts of certain types of companies (5) as well as to the headings laid down in the Annex to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1725/2003 (6).
Article 2
The technical format for the transmission of data in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 shall be as set out in Annex II to this Regulation.
Article 3
The data and metadata transmitted pursuant to this Regulation shall be sent in electronic form by Competent National Authorities (National Statistical Offices and Authorities supervising certain financial institutions) to the Commission (Eurostat). The transmission format shall conform to appropriate interchange standards specified by the Commission (Eurostat). Data shall be transmitted or uploaded by electronic means to the single entry point for data, maintained by the Commission (Eurostat).
Member States shall implement the interchange standards and guidelines supplied by the Commission (Eurostat) according to the requirements of this Regulation.
Article 4
The requirements for double reporting as referred to in Section 9, point 2 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 shall be as set out in Annex III to this Regulation.
Article 5
Derogations from the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 as referred to in Annex I, Section 11, Annex II, Section 10, Annex III, Section 9, Annex VIII, Section 8 and Annex IX, Section 13 to that Regulation shall be granted as specified in Annex IV to this Regulation.
Article 6
Regulations (EC) No 2700/98 and (EC) No 2702/98 are hereby repealed.
They shall, however, continue to apply as regards the collection, compilation and transmission of data for reference years up to and including 2007.
Article 7
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of 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 Brussels, 11 march 2009