COMMON POSITION (EC) No 46/98 adopted by the Council on 20 July 1998 with a view to adopting European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No . . ./98 of . . . amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States with a view to reducing the data to be provided (98/C 285/01)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 100a thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b of the Treaty (3),

Whereas, pursuant to Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 (4), the Community and the Member States have been compiling statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States (Intrastat) during the transitional period beginning on 1 January 1993 and ending on the date of changeover to a unified system of taxation in the Member State of origin;

Whereas the simplification of legislation for the internal market, as formulated in the SLIM (simpler legislation for the internal market) initiative, aims to improve enterprises' competitiveness and job-creation potential;

Whereas the simplification of the Intrastat system was chosen as a SLIM pilot project, and specific proposals formulated by the SLIM-Intrastat Working Party with a view to reducing the burden on providers of statistical information which were contained in a communication to the European Parliament and to the Council have been endorsed by those institutions;

Whereas limiting the information on declarations, while maintaining an acceptable level of information for users, is a prime means of reducing the burden on providers of statistical information;

Whereas deletion of the mode of transport and the delivery terms is one of these simplification measures; whereas, however, reporting in the country of origin, the region of origin and/or the region of destination as well as of the statistical procedure is of particular benefit to many users and should therefore be retained;

Whereas it is necessary for certain Member States to require reporting of delivery terms and the presumed mode of transport; whereas, however, it is desirable, after consultation in the Committee on Statistics, to set thresholds below which Member States may not prescribe such statistical data, in order to avoid a disproportionate burden for small and medium-sized undertakings;

Whereas, in order to meet the expectations of the providers of statistical information and take account of the Member States' differing administrative structures, national administrations should be afforded greater flexibility in laying down the deadlines for the transmission of declarations;

Whereas such simplification may cause practical difficulties for certain national administrations; whereas it is necessary to confer on the Commission, acting in accordance with Article 30 of Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91, the power to grant derogations to individual Member States allowing them to defer the application of this Regulation for a transitional period of up to two years,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 is hereby amended as follows:

1. Article 13(1) shall be replaced by the following:

'1. The statistical information required by the Intrastat system shall be covered in periodic declarations to be sent by the party responsible for providing the information to the competent national departments, under conditions which the Commission shall lay down pursuant to Article 30.`;

2. Article 23 shall be amended as follows:

(a) in paragraph (1) the points (f) and (g) shall be deleted;

(b) Paragraph (2) shall be replaced by the following:

'2. Member States may prescribe that the following additional data be provided on the statistical data medium:

(a) in the Member State of arrival, the country of origin; however, that information may only be prescribed within the limits of Community law;

(b) in the Member State of dispatch, the region of origin; in the Member State of arrival, the region of destination;

(c) Where appropriate, the statistical procedure.`;

(c) paragraph 3 becomes paragraph 4 and the following new paragraph 3 shall be inserted:

'3. In the case of providers of statistical information whose annual value of arrivals or of dispatches falls below the thresholds fixed by the Member States after consultation in the Committee set up under Article 29, it shall not be prescribed that data other than those listed in paragraphs 1 and 2 be provided for such arrivals or dispatches on the statistical data medium.

Member States may require other providers of statistical information to supply the following additional data:

(a) the delivery terms;

(b) the presumed mode of transport.`;

(d) the following paragraph shall be added:

'5. The Commission shall ensure publication of a list of the data required of providers of statistical information by the Member States, as well as the thresholds referred to in paragraph 3, in the Official Journal of the European Communities.`

Article 2

Where significant changes are required in national statistical systems, the Commission may, acting in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 30 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91, grant derogations to individual Member States allowing them to defer the application of this Regulation for a transitional period of up to two years.

Article 3

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall apply from 1 January 1999.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at . . .

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

(1) OJ C 203, 3.7.1997, p. 10.

(2) OJ C 19, 21.1.1998, p. 49.

(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 1 April 1998 (OJ C 138, 4.5.1998, p. 90), Council Common Position of 20 July 1998 (not yet published in the Official Journal). Decision of the European Parliament of . . . (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(4) OJ L 316, 16.11.1991, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3046/92 (OJ L 307, 23.10.1992, p. 27).

STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. On 30 May 1997, the Commission presented a proposal based on Article 100a of the EC Treaty on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

2. The European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee delivered their Opinions on 1 April 1998 (1) and 29 October 1997 (2) respectively.

Following the Opinion of the European Parliament, the Commission presented an amended proposal on 27 April 1998 (3).

3. The Council adopted its common position, under Article 189b of the Treaty, on 20 July 1998.

II. OBJECTIVE

4. The Intrastat system was introduced on 1 April 1993 following the abolition of customs formalities within the Community. The system lays down the rules for the collection and compilation of statistics on the trading of goods between Member States. The proposal seeks to reduce the administrative burden on businesses by abolishing some of the data which they are at present required to supply to national authorities.

III. THE COMMON POSITION

5. Broadly speaking, the Commission proposal has been reworked during the discussions in the Council. However, the common position takes account of the wishes expressed by the European Parliament on several important points listed below.

6. Concerning the data to be forwarded to the national administrations, the Council accepted the part of amendment No 1 (accepted by the Commission) designed to limit the administrative burden on firms, and in particular on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The introduction of a threshold definitively frees SMEs from declaring data on the means of transport and terms of delivery (Article 23(3)). Optional data (data which a Member State may stipulate) have, moreover, been reduced to two variables and consequently SMEs will to totally exempt from declaring four variables.

Nevertheless, in order to compile reliable statistics on goods traded between Member States, the Council considers that Member States unable to obtain the requisite data by other means may require businesses other than SMEs to supply data on delivery terms and the presumed mode of transport.

7. From amendment No 2 relating to Article 23(2) (approved by the Commission except for the immediate deletion of 'delivery terms`), the Council has incorporated into its common position the part about the introduction of a threshold so as to limit the number of SMEs required to provide detailed statistical data.

The Council has then partly incorporated in its common position that element of the amendment which allows Member States to ask those making returns for the variables concerning the region of origin and the region of arrival. The Council further considers that it is for the Member States to determine the statistical system and it has not therefore eliminated that possibility from its common position.

The Council was, however, unable to take over certain parts of amendment No 2, since it thought that the threshold below which Member States could not require certain figures for SMEs should be determined by the Member States in consultation with the Committee on Statistics relating to the Trading of Goods between Member States.

Furthermore, the Council did not agree that optional information could be stipulated solely for businesses other than SMEs.

8. After taking over a number of important points from the European Parliament amendments, the Council thought that it had, all in all, achieved a fair balance not merely between different positions within the Council, but also between the aim of lightening the declaration burden on firms, on the one hand, and the need for reliable statistics, on the other.

IV. CONCLUSION

The Council considers that its common position entails above all advantages for SMEs, which will be exempt from declaring four variables.

(1) OJ C 138, 4.5.1998, p. 90.

(2) OJ C 19, 21.1.1998, p. 49.

(3) OJ C 171, 5.6.1998, p. 12.