on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission under Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL

on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission under Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road

1.Background

Article 3(4) of Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road, confers on the Commission the power to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 8 concerning the updating of Part 1 of Annex I, solely in order to take account of economic and technical developments, except for any modifications to the optional nature of the required information. Furthermore, the same Article empowers the Commission to adopt, where necessary, delegated acts in accordance with Article 8, concerning the adaptation of Annexes II to VII. Under Article 8(2) of the Regulation, the power to adopt delegated acts is conferred for a period of five years from 23 February 2012. This power is to be tacitly extended for periods of five years unless the European Parliament or the Council objects.

In exercising this power, the Commission shall ensure that the delegated acts do not impose a significant additional administrative burden on the Member States and on the respondents.

The Commission shall draw up a report on the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period.

This report fulfils this obligation.

2.Commission exercise of delegated powers under Regulation (EU) No 70/2012

The Commission has not yet exercised the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on it by Regulation (EU) No 70/2012, as neither economic and technical developments in the field of road freight transport nor conclusions of the Commission's Working Groups on road freight statistics with Member States raised the need to use these delegated powers.

3.Conclusions

The Commission has not yet exercised the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on it by Regulation (EU) No 70/2012.

The Commission works continuously to improve the quality and timeliness of the data collection and to adapt the information collected and disseminated to the new users' needs and to take account of economic and technical developments of the domain.

All these aspects are discussed in the groups of national experts which are held every two years and approved by the Coordinating Group for Statistics on Transport (CGST).

In addition, the European Statistical System will continue to develop and produce statistics needed: (i) to assess progress in meeting quantitative targets set in the Transport White Paper on volume and performance of all transport modes and (ii) for the European Commission transport modelling activities and launching of new policy initiatives such as the decarbonisation of transport.

Every time when technical changes of the annexes are decided and agreed with the group of experts, the delegated powers conferred to the Commission by Regulation 70/2012 will be used to efficiently and timely manage those changes.

As a conclusion, the Commission is of the view that it should continue to have the delegated powers conferred by Article 3 (4) of the Regulation (EU) No 70/2012, as in the future it might be necessary to exercise these delegated powers.