1993R2186 — EN — 20.11.2003 — 001.001 — 1
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►B COUNCILREGULATION(EEC)No2186/93
of22July1993
onCommunitycoordinationindrawingupbusinessregisters forstatisticalpurposes
(OJ L 196, 5.8.1993, p. 1)
Amended by:
Official Journal
No page date
►M1Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 29 September 2003L 284 1 31.10.2003
NB: This consolidated version contains references to the European unit of account and/or the ecu, which from 1 January 1999
should be understood as references to the euro — Council Regulation (EEC) No 3308/80 (OJ L 345, 20.12.1980, p. 1) andCouncil Regulation (EC) No 1103/97 (OJ L 162, 19.6.1997, p. 1).
▼B
COUNCILREGULATION(EEC)No2186/93
of22July1993
on Community coordination in drawing up business registers for
statisticalpurposes
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic
Community, and in particular Article 213 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,Whereas the Single Market increases the need to improve statistical
comparability in order to meet Community requirements; whereas, inorder to achieve that improvement, common definitionsand des crip-tions have to be adopted for enterprises and other relevant statistical
unitsto be covered;
Whereas registers should be drawn up and updated in order to be able
to collect information on these units;
Whereasthere isa growing need for information on the s tructure of
enterprises, a need which current Community statistics are not able to
meet;
Whereas business registers for statistical purposes are a necessary tool
in keeping track of the structural changes in the economy broughtabout by such operations as joint ventures, partnerships, buy-outs,mergersand takeovers ;
Whereasthe important role played by public undertakingsin the
national economiesof the Member Stateshasbeen acknowledged,particularly in Commission Directive 80/723/EEC (
1), Article 2 of
which also defines such undertakings; whereas they should thereforebe identified in business registers;
Whereas some statistics are not currently available, particularly in
sectors with many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such
as services, because a register of these enterprises for statisticalpurposes does not exist;
Whereas business registers are one element in reconciling the
conflicting requirements for increased information on enterprises and
lightening their administrative burden, in particular by using existing
information in administrative and legal registers, especially in the caseof SMEs, pursuant to recommendation 90/246/EEC (
2);
Whereas business registers for statistical purposes represent a basic
element of systems of information on enterprises, making it possibleto organize and coordinate statistical surveys by providing a sampling
base, possibilities of extrapolation and means of monitoring the replies
from enterprises, in particular those covered by Directives 78/660/EEC (
3) and 83/349/EEC (4);1993R2186 — EN — 20.11.2003 — 001.001 — 2
(1) Commission Directive 80/723/EEC of 25 June 1980 on the transparency of
financial relationsbetween Member Statesand public undertakings(OJ No
L 195, 29. 7. 1980, p. 35). Directive asamended by Directive 85/413/EEC
(OJ No L 229, 28. 8. 1985, p. 20).
(2) Council recommendation 90/246/EEC of 28 May 1990 relating to the imple-
mentation of a policy of administrative simplification in favour of small and
medium-sized enterprises in the Member States (OJ No L 141, 2. 6. 1990, p.
55).
(3) Fourth Council Directive 78/660/EEC of 25 July 1978 based on Article 54
(3) (g) of the Treaty on the annual accountsof certain typesof companies
(OJ No L 222, 14. 8. 1978, p. 11). Directive aslas t amended by Directive90/605/EEC (OJ No L 317, 16. 11. 1990, p. 60).
(
4) Seventh Council Directive 83/349/EEC of 13 June 1983 based on Article 54
(3) (g) of the Treaty on consolidated accounts (OJ No L 193, 18. 7. 1983, p.
1). Directive aslas t amended by Directive 90/605/EEC (OJ No L 317, 16.
11. 1990, p. 60).
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Whereas the setting-up of a new statistical collection system covering
trade in goods and services between Member States necessitates aregister of those persons required to give information; whereas it is
desirable to derive that register of persons required to give information
from a central register of enterprises used for statistical purposes;
Whereas the business registers for statistical purposes are at a different
stage of development in each Member State; whereas the long andcostly development of these registers can be carried out only in twostages, the first of which must relate to harmonization of the basic units
in those registers in accordance with an established timetable,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Aims
Member States shall set up for statistical purposes one or more harmo-
nized registers with the definitions and scope specified in the following
Articles.
Article 2
Definitions
1. For the purposes of this Regulation:
(a) ‘legal unit’ shall mean a legal unit as defined in Section II.A.3 of
the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 (1);
(b) ‘enterprise’ shall mean an enterprise as defined in Section III.A of
the Annex to that Regulation.
Hereinafter the connection between the enterprise and the legal unit
shall be expressed as follows:
— the enterprise is attached to one or more legal units, and
— the legal unit is responsible for the enterprise;
(c) ‘local unit’ shall mean a local unit as defined in Section III.F of the
Annex to Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
Hereinafter the connection between the local unit and the enterprise
shall be expressed as follows:
— the local unit isdependent on an enterpris e.
2. This Regulation shall apply only to units which exercise wholly
or partially a productive activity.
Article 3
Scope
1. In accordance with the definitionsgiven in Article 2 and s ubject
to the limitations specified in this Article, registers shall be compiledof:
— all enterprises carrying on economic activities contributing to the
gross domestic product at market prices (GDP),
— the legal units responsible for those enterprises,
— the local units dependent on those enterprises.
This requirement shall not, however, apply to households:
— in so far as the goods they produce are for their own consumption,
— in so far as the services they produce involve the letting of own or
leased property (group 70.2 of the statistical classification of1993R2186 — EN — 20.11.2003 — 001.001 — 3
(1) 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 (OJ No L 76, 30. 3. 1993, p. 1).
▼B
economic activitiesin the European Community (NACE Rev. 1)
established by Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 (1)).
The inclusion of:
— enterprises the main activity of which falls within Section A, B or L
of NACE Rev. 1,
— legal units responsible for them,
— local unitsdependent on them,
shall be optional.The extent to which small enterprises of no statistical importance to the
Member States are to be included on the registers shall be decidedunder the procedure laid down in Article 9.
2. The enterprises, legal units and local units referred to in para-
graph 1 shall be registered in accordance with the timetable set out in
Annex I.
3. Separate registration of legal units shall be optional, provided that
the total content of information for such units is included in the registerentry for enterprises.
The rules for such registration shall be adopted in accordance with the
procedure laid down in Article 9.
Article 4
Register characteristics
The units listed in a register shall be characterized by an identity
number and the descriptive details specified in Annex II.
Article 5
Updating
1. The following shall be updated at least once a year:
(a) entriesto, and removalsfrom, the regis ter;
(b) the variabless et out in points(b) and (f) of Annex II (1);
(c) for units which are the subject of annual surveys, the variables set
out in points(b), (c), (d), (e) and (h) of Annex II (3) in s o far asthose variables are included in the surveys.
Asa general rule, information obtained from adminis trative filesor
annual surveys shall be updated annually, other information being
updated every four years.
2. At the end of the first quarter of each calendar year, Member
States shall make a copy of the register as it stands on that date andkeep that copy for 10 years for the purpose of analysis.
Article 6
Accesstoinformation
When the Commission so requests, after obtaining the opinion of the
Committee provided for in Article 9, Member Statess hall carry outstatistical analyses of the registers and transmit the results, includingthe data declared confidential by the Member Statespurs uant tonational legislation or practice concerning statistical confidentiality, in
accordance with Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 of 11
June 1990 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidenti-ality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (
2).1993R2186 — EN — 20.11.2003 — 001.001 — 4
(1) OJ No L 293, 24. 10. 1990, p. 1.
(2) OJ No L 151, 15. 6. 1990, p. 1.
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Article 7
Accesstoadministrativeorlegalregisters
Each national statistical institute shall be authorized to collect for
statistical purposes information covered by this Regulation which is
contained in the administrative or legal files compiled on its national
territory, in accordance with the conditionsdetermined by national law.
Article 8
Implementingrules
The rulesfor implementing Articles3, 4, 5 and 6 and AnnexesI and II,
aswell asthe meas uresrequired to adapt thos e rulesand any deroga-tions from Articles 3, 4 and 5 or from the Annexes, shall be adopted inaccordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9.
Article 9
Procedure
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Statistical Programme
Committee, set up by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom, herein-
after referred to as‘the Committee’.
2. Where reference ismade to thisArticle, Articles4 and 7 of Deci-
sion 1999/468/EC (
1) shall apply, having regard to the provisions of
Article 8 thereof.
The period laid down in Article 4(3) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be
set at three months.
3. The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.
Article 10
Commissionreport
Within four yearsof the date of adoption of thisRegulation, the
Commission shall submit a report to the Council on the implementation
of the Regulation which may be accompanied by suitable proposals
taking into account the experience gained.
Article 11
ThisRegulation s hall enter into force on the 20th day following its
publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities .
ThisRegulation s hall be binding in itsentirety and directly applicable
in all Member States.1993R2186 — EN — 20.11.2003 — 001.001 — 5
(1) Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures
for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (OJ
L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23).▼M1
▼B
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ANNEX I
Timetableforregistrationintheregister
The enterprises defined in Article 2 and registered in conformity with Article 3
shall be entered in the register before 1 January 1996. Legal and local units shall
be allowed an extra year.1993R2186 — EN — 20.11.2003 — 001.001 — 6
▼B
ANNEX II
Identitynumberanddescriptivedetails
1. The register entry of a legal unit shall contain the following information:
(a) identity number;
(b) name, address (including postcode), and optionally: telephone, electronic
mail and fax numbers and telex address;
(c) requirement for the legal unit to publish its annual accounts (Yes/No);
(d) date of incorporation for legal persons or date of official recognition as
an economic operator for natural persons;
(e) date on which the legal unit ceases to be legally responsible for an enter-
prise;
(f) legal form of the unit;
(g) name and address of any non-resident legal unit, other than a natural
person, which controls the legal unit (optional);
(h) identity number of the legal unit in the register which controls the legal
unit (optional);
(i) character of ‘public undertaking’ of the legal unit within the meaning of
Commission Directive 80/723/EEC (1) (Yes/No) (for legal persons only);
(j) reference to other associated files, including customs files, in which the
legal unit isrecorded and which contain information which can be us ed
for statistical purposes;
(k) reference to the register of intra-Community operators drawn up in accor-
dance with Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 of 7 November 1991
on the statistical relating to the trading of goods between (2).
2. The record of a local unit shall contain the following information:
(a) identity number;
(b) name, address and other identifying information as set out in paragraph 1
(b) of thisAnnex;
(c) activity code at the four-digit (class) level of NACE Rev. 1;
(d) secondary activiites, if any, at the four-digit level of NACE Rev. 1
(optional);
(e) size of labour force, as indicated in paragraph 3 (e) of this Annex;
(f) date of commencement of the activitiesthe codesof which are given in
(c);
(g) date of final cessation of activities;
(h) geographical location code (territorial units);
(i) reference to associated registers in which the local unit appears and
which contain information which can be used for statistical purposes;
(j) identify number in the register of the enterprise on which the local unit is
dependent;
(k) activity carried out in the local unit constituting an ancillary activity of
the enterprise on which it depends (Yes/No).
3. The record of an enterprise shall contain the following information:
(a) identify number;
(b) identity number(s) of the legal unit(s) legally responsible for the enter-
prise;
(c) activity code of the enterprise at four-digit (class) level of NACE Rev. 1
in which the principal activity or all the activitiesof the enterpris e isor
are included;
(d) secondary activities, if any, at NACE Rev. 1 four-digit level, if they
amount to 10 % of the total for all activitiesof the gros svalue added at
factor cost for each or account for 5 % or more of national activity of
thistype; thispoint concernsonly enterpris eswhich are the s ubject of
surveys;1993R2186 — EN — 20.11.2003 — 001.001 — 7
(1) OJ No L 195, 29. 7. 1980, p. 35.
(2) OJ No L 316, 16. 11. 1991, p. 1. Regulation asamended by Regulation (EEC) No 3046/
92 (OJ No L 307, 23. 10. 1992, p. 27).
▼B
(e) size: measured by the number of persons occupied or, failing that, by
allocation to one of the following classes according to the number of
persons occupied: 0; 1; 2; 3 to 4; 5 to 9; 10 to 19; 20 to 49; 50 to 99;
100 to 149; 150 to 199; 200 to 249; 250 to 499; 500 to 999; 1 000; above
1 000, the number of thousands;
(f) date of commencement of activitiesof the enterpris e;
(g) date of final cessation of activities of the enterprise;
(h) net turnover from sale of goods and services (except for financial inter-
mediaires); falling that, allocation to a size class defined as follows (in
millionsof ecus ): [0, 1]; [1, 2]; [2, 4]; [4, 5]; [5, 10]; [10, 20]; [20, 40];
[40, 50]; [50, 100]; [100, 200]; [200, 500]; [500, 1 000]; [1 000, 5 000];
5 000 + (optional for turnover not exceeding ECU 2 million);
(i) net assets (assets after allowing for depreciation less liabilities — finan-
cial intermediariedsonly (optinal).1993R2186 — EN — 20.11.2003 — 001.001 — 8