COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
C0MC91) 56 final 
Brussels/ 25 February 1991 
Draft 
COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) 
on the establishment of a Community survey 
of industrial production 
(presented by the Commission) 
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Explanatory memorandum 
1. The production statistics compiled by the Member States are very useful in providing 
a highly detailed picture of the industrial apparatus and especially of its competitive 
position, but the diversity of statistical methods used by each Member State means 
that the Community is unable to derive any benefit from the surveys carried out at 
national level. 
2. In the run-up to the large internal market in 1993, business statistics must be 
prepared to produce European-level results with the same degree of accuracy and 
reliability as the best national statistics. This will necessarily involve harmonization 
of methodologies and adaptation of national surveys to the European dimension. 
3. That is the aim of the system proposed by the Commission through the creation of a 
European survey of industrial production. This system is designed to transform the 
surveys carried out in the Member States by standardizing their product 
classifications and laying down conventions and constraints that will ensure high-
quality Community statistics. Nevertheless, far from ruling out the possibility of 
national results, it will enhance their value by placing them in the context of Europe 
as a whole. 
4. The common classification for the national surveys of industrial production will be 
based on the Community external trade classification, the Combined Nomenclature. 
This will enable the production statistics to be compared easily with the external 
trade statistics and will considerably facilitate market studies and the calculation of 
domestic consumption. 
5. The information to be gained from the introduction of this system should not result 
in an increased survey burden on firms. It is therefore planned to set survey 
thresholds that take account of the national structure of industry so as to ensure a 
satisfactory degree of representativeness without having to survey the smallest firms; 
it will seldom be necessary to go below the 20-employee limit. 
6. Like the industrial situation to which it relates, the system is not static: it introduces 
an annual information system in terms of both volume and value on the basis of 
which extensions may be authorized in order to meet specific requirements of 
Community policy or surveillance of sensitive products. 
7. The reference to Council Regulation (Euratom/EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 
authorizing the transmission to the Statistical Office of the European Communities of 
data subject to statistical confidentiality will make it possible to produce at 
Community level statistics that were hitherto regarded as being out of the question. 
Nevertheless, any publication of such data will be subject to the supervision of the 
committee responsible for implementing this new Regulation in order to ensure that 
data which might be detrimental to the interests of the Community are not divulged. 
8. The creation of these European statistics of industrial production meets a need 
widely felt by the European Federations of Branches of Industry, the Commission 
and the National Statistical Offices. They constitute the cornerstone of an 
information system whose development forms a logical part of the gradual build-up 
of a system of European business statistics. 
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Draft 
COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) 
on the establishment of a Community survey 
of industrial production 
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 draft Regulation submitted by the Commission, 
Whereas in order to carry out the tasks devolving on it from the Treaties, especially with 
the prospect of the internal market as provided for under Article 8a of the Treaty 
establishing the European Economic Community, the Commission must have full, up-to-
date and reliable information on industrial production in the Community; 
Whereas companies need such information in order to know their markets and the 
international dimension of these markets will favour an alignment between production 
statistics and external trade statistics; 
Whereas if production statistics are to be useful and make such alignment practicable, they 
must be drawn up at a level of detail which is close to the first six digits of the Combined 
Nomenclature (which also corresponds to the coding used in the Harmonized System); 
Whereas the Combined Nomenclature is a product nomenclature with which companies are 
already familiar, and it will be to their benefit to make reference to this, instead of a newly 
created classification specific to production activities; 
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Whereas it is only if the Member States use survey classification systems derived from the 
same product list that standardized statistics can be drawn up with reliability, speed, 
flexibility and the level of detail required to manage the internal market; 
Whereas in order to meet particular national requirements, Member States may retain or 
enter in their national nomenclatures items to supplement the Community product list, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 
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Article 1 
General 
Member States shall carry out a Community statistical survey of industrial production. 
Article 2 
Survey field and characteristics 
(1) The field of production covered by the survey provided for in Article 1 
shall be that of the activities listed in sections C, D and E of NACE 
Rev. 1 as established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 (1). 
(2) The production recorded by the survey in this field shall be defined 
by the list of products, hereinafter referred to as "PR0DC0M list1' 
The elements of this list shall be built up, in principle, with 
articles or groups of articles from the Combined Nomenclature. 
The PR0DC0M list and the procedures shall be laid down by the Commission 
after consulting the Committee referred to in Article 9 and in accordance 
with the procedure laid down in Article 10. The same procedure shall be 
followed for updating the PR0DC0M list. 
(3) The survey shall cover the following information for each product: 
a) Unless stated otherwise under paragraph 4, the volume of production 
sold during the survey period; 
b) The value of production sold during the survey period/ 
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(4) In the case of some products in the PRODCOM list , the information on volume of 
production referred to in paragraph 3(a) shall not be information on the 
production sold during the survey period but one of the following two 
variables: 
a) The volume of production actually carried out during the survey period, 
including any which is incorporated into the manufacture of other products from 
the same enterprise; 
b) the volume of production actually carried out during the survey period with a 
view to its being offered for sale. 
(5) The survey in each Member State shall cover only that production actually carried 
out within the national territory and shall not include subcontracted production 
outside the national territory. 
Article 3 
Representativeness 
The production of all enterprises of the Community is to be recorded with a certain degree 
of accuracy for each NACE Rev. 1 class. 
The survey shall fulfil the following requirements: 
(1) The data supplied shall represent the production of all enterprises which have 20 or 
more employees; 
(2) if the production of enterprises which have 20 or more employees is less than 90% 
of the national production for one NACE Rev. 1 class, additional enterprises shall be 
included until this threshold is reached for the class concerned; 
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(3) if the production of enterprises which have 20 or more employees is more than 90% 
of the national production for one NACE Rev. 1 class, a threshold higher than 20 
persons employed may be used by the Member State concerned, where such an 
increase in the threshold does not compromise the representation of 90% for the 
class concerned. 
The survey methodology shall be improved to enable Community production to be valued 
sufficiently accurately. The appropriate measures shall be drawn up by the Commission 
following consultation with the Committee referred to in Article 9, in accordance 
with the procedure specified in Article 10. 
Article 4 
Periodicity 
The survey shall cover a period of one calendar year. 
However, monthly or quarterly surveys may be carried out for certain products in the 
PRODCOM list . 
Article 5 
Collection of data 
(1) Member States shall collect the required data using survey questionnaires. The 
Commission shall lay down the relevant arrangements. 
(2) The enterprises called upon by Member States to supply information shall be 
obliged to give honest and complete information within the prescribed periods. 
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(3) The survey may not be requisite if Member States 
already have information from other sources which is at least equivalent as regards 
precision and quality. 
Article 6 
Processing of results 
Member States shall process the completed questionnaires (Article 5(1)) or 
information from other sources (Article 5 (3)) in accordance with specifications 
which the Commission shall lay down. 
Article 7 
Transmission of results 
(1) Member States shall send the results of the annual survey to the Statistical 
Office of the European Communities within six months after the end of the survey 
year. These shall include any data which are classed as confidential under national 
legislation; these data should be clearly marked as such. 
The first survey shall cover 1993. 
(2) Product data which have a periodicity shorter than annual shall be sent 
under the procedure which the Commission shall lay down. 
(3) With the data for 1993 the Member States shall send information relating to 1992 
using national statistics which correspond as closely as possible to the PRODCOM 
list . 
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(4) Data transmitted to the Statistical Office of the European Communities 
shall be treated as confidential as required by Council Regulation 
(Euratom/EEC) No 1588/90 (2). 
Article 8 
Transitional period 
Articles 1 to 7 shall be the subject of progressive implementing measures 
for the surveys covering 1993 and 1994. 
Article 9 
The Committee 
The procedures for implementing this Regulation, including the measures for adjustment to 
technical progress concerning the processing and the transmission of the results shall be laid 
down by the Commission after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee set up by 
Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (3), in accordance with the procedure 
set out in Article 10. 
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Article 10 
Procedure 
The representative of the Commission shall submit to the committee 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, if necessary by taking a 
vote. 
The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in addition, each Member State shall have the 
right to ask to have its position recorded in the minutes. 
The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by the committee. It 
shall inform the committee of the manner in which its opinion has been taken into account. 
Article 11 
Entry into force 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of 
the European Communities. 
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This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 
Done at Brussels, For the Council 
The President 
eN 
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FICHE FINANCIERE 
concernant la mise en place d'une enquête communautaire 
sur La production industrielle 
TI Budget : B5-60 Article : 85-60 1 
Titre : Actions relatives aux programmes statistiques sectoriels pour 
l'accompagnement des politiques communautaires 
2l Base légale : Article 100 A du Traité instituant la Communauté 
Economique Européenne. 
Classification : Dépense non obligatoire 
Description du projet : 4. 
4.1 Objectifs 
4.2 Actions : (a) harmoniser les statistiques de production sur te champs 
industriel 
(b) produire une statistique européenne détaillée et rapide 
(c) rapprocher les statistiques de production des 
statistiques de commerce extérieur 
(a) aider les Etats membres à mettre en place tes 
équipements nécessaires 
(b) aider au démarrage d'enquêtes pilote. 
__ Méthode de calcuT 
5.1 Nature des dépenses : 
(1) frais d'envoi, de collecte, de traitement occasionnés par des 
enquêtes pilotes; 
(2) financement d'équipement pour le traitement des données. 
5.2 Part de la Coawission : 25 X 
5.3 Calcul : enquêtes pilotes : 1 Million d'écus 
équipements : 4 Millions d'écus 
6. 
6.1 
6.2 
77" laplication financière au regard des opérations 
Calendrier 
1991 
1992 
1993 
1994 
Total 
Financement : Crédits 
engagés 
1,7 
1,2 
5,0 
Aucun en 1990 Crédits 
dépensés 
2,1 
1,0 
0,2 
5,0 
(1) La Communauté apporte sa contribution en complément 
d'un financement des Etats membres: coût total de 
l'opération 20 Mecu 
(2) La Commission se réserve le droit de réaffecter les 
crédits en fonction des priorités de l'exercice en 
cours. Observations 
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Impact on SMEs of the PRODCOM Regulation. 
1. Administrative obligations on enterprises resulting from the application of legislation. 
The aim of the Regulation is to widen the interest of statistics already collected by the 
Member States, without increasing the survey burden on enterprises, by producing annual 
European industrial statistics. 
The regulation breaks new ground by harmonizing survey methods, especially 
classifications. Each country's survey classification will be based on a common model, 
itself based on the Combined Nomenclature, the Community's nomenclature for external 
trade. The national survey classifications will therefore be largely harmonized with the 
Combined Nomenclature. 
All industrial enterprises are concerned by these statistics, but experience in the 
Community's advanced countries has led to the survey being limited as far as possible to 
enterprises with at least 20 employees. 
2. Advantages for enterprises. 
The European dimension of the results produced by the new survey system is a major 
advantage for enterprises : instead of juxtaposing incomplete national statistics that are 
difficult to compare, the new system will produce the fullest statistics at European level, if 
not at the level of individual Member countries. 
All the enterprises interviewed in the Community will provide data on the same list of 
products and, thanks to the new Council Regulation authorizing the forwarding of 
confidential data to Eurostat, areas of secrecy will be kept to a minimum. 
In this way it will at last be possible to have statistics for a number of industrial products 
which were formerly excluded by national constraints. 
And these statistics will lead directly to market statistics, because the survey classifications 
are based on the Combined Nomenclature. 
Enterprises will therefore be able to gain access to an unprecedented amount of 
information on their markets without having to call upon the expensive services of 
specialized firms. 
The professionals are in no doubt as to the utility of these new statistics for enterprises. 
The utility will be further enhanced by the short deadline imposed on Member countries 
for producing the results. 
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3. Disavantages for enterprises. 
» 
It should be remembered, firstly, that these statistics will not concern the great majority of 
enterprises with fewer than 20 employees. 
For the remaining minority, there may be difficulties stemming from the level of detail or 
the nature of the data required and the frequency of interrogation, especially in the less 
advanced countries where enterprises are not so used to developed statistics. 
Since the statistics will be annual, the periodicity cannot be called into question. As 
regards the survey classification, which lays down the detail and nature of the data, 
enterprises will be spared the task of learning a new classification since the Combined 
Nomenclature will be used. 
It should be added that entei prises will find it simpler to provide replies the more reduced 
or concentrated their activities (the case of "small and medium-sized enterprises'*) and that 
the largest enterprises are sufficiently well organized to reply in the level of detail 
corresponding to the diversity of their markets. 
As regards data collection, the European dimension will help develop computerized data 
forwarding techniques. 
4. Have the two sides of industry been consulted in advance? 
There have been systematic consultations with European Federations of industrial 
branches, as least with those existence was known through national statistical offices and 
Commission departments. Over 200 federations were involved. These consultations played 
an essential role in tailoring the survey system to provide market information. 
In addition, each national statistical office was able to extend consultations to other types 
of partner through the organizations on the Member countries normally responsible for 
national consultations in statistical matters. 
S?' - 15 -
|î ISSN 0254-1475 
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