on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission pursuant Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts

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 pursuant Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts

1.Background

Article 3(3) and (4) of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 on European environmental economic accounts confers powers to adopt delegated acts on the Commission. According to Article 9(2) of that Regulation, the power to adopt delegated acts is conferred for a period of five years from 11 August 2011. This power shall be tacitly extended for periods of five years unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension.

The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the 5-year period.

This brief report fulfils this obligation.

2.Commission exercise of delegated powers pursuant Regulation (EU) No 691/2011

The Commission has not yet exercised the powers to adopt delegated acts conferred on it by Regulation (EU) No 691/2011. The reasons are the following: the powers delegated in Article 3(3) date from 2011, but the first transmission of statistical data took place in 2013, according to Regulation (EU) No 691/2011. Since 2013 there was no need to neither update nor provide guidance on the information referred in Article 3(3).

As regards the powers delegated in Article 3(4), these powers date from 2014, as they were conferred on by Regulation (EU) No 538/2014 amending Regulation (EU) No 691/2011. The Commission intends to use the powers stipulated in Article 3(4) to adopt a delegated act specifying the energy products referred to in Section 3 of Annex VI of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011. This act is in preparation and scheduled to be adopted in the fourth quarter of 2015. A list of energy products for the European environmental economic accounts is an essential element to determine the scope of these statistics, to allow comparability of data across countries and to ensure the internal consistency (balancing) of the physical energy flow accounts. Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on energy statistics provides a list of energy products in Annex B, covering most of the energy products needed in physical energy flow accounts.

Appropriate consultations are being carried out during the preparatory work, including at expert level. The Working Group on Environmental Accounts and the Working Group on Environment Expenditure Statistics were consulted in a joint meeting in March 2015. The Directors of sectoral and environmental statistics and accounts (DIMESA) were consulted in June 2015.

Both the European Parliament and the Council have been duly informed and invited to participate in expert meetings.

3.Conclusions

No conclusion can be drawn yet as the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts has not been exercised.