COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council with a view to the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) N° 2223/96 with respect to the time limits for transmission of the main aggregates of national accounts, to the derogations concerning the transmission of the main aggregates of national accounts and to the transmission of employment data in hours worked

2002/0109 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council with a view to the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) N° 2223/96 with respect to the time limits for transmission of the main aggregates of national accounts, to the derogations concerning the transmission of the main aggregates of national accounts and to the transmission of employment data in hours worked

1. Background

Proposal submitted to the European Parliament and to the Council (COM(2002) 234 final - 2002/0109 (COD)) : // 15 May 2002

European Central Bank adopted its opinion : // 3 October 2002

Opinion of the European Parliament (first reading) : // 24 September 2002

Adoption of the common position by the Council : // 18 February 2003

2. Aim of the Commission proposal

The report of the Monetary Committee on statistical requirements in EMU, endorsed by the Ecofin Council of 18 January 1999, stressed the need - amongst others - to reduce the time limits for transmission of the main aggregates of quarterly national accounts, to abrogate the specific Member States' derogations that prevent the compilation of the European main aggregates of quarterly and annual national accounts, and to harmonise the national accounts employment data by transmitting such data expressed in the unit "hours worked".

The proposed Regulation is referred to in the "Action Plan on EMU Statistical Requirements" which was endorsed by the Ecofin Council of 29 September 2000: the Regulation is included in the list of modifications to existing Regulations to be submitted by the Commission to the Council.

Finally, the proposed Regulation is referred to in the 3rd and 4th progress report on the implementation of the Monetary Committee's report - Information requirements in EMU - which were endorsed by the Ecofin Council of 19 January 2001 and 6 November 2001: the Regulation is included in the list of modifications to existing legislation, Annex IV of the 3rd, 4th and 5th progress report, to be submitted by the Commission to the Council.

The Regulation was then prepared within the framework of the provisions set out above.

3. Comments on the common position

3.1. General

At first reading, the European Parliament approved the Commission's proposal without amendment.

3.2. Decisions on the European Parliament's amendments after first reading

Not applicable

3.3. New provisions introduced by the Council and the Commission's position.

Four key provisions have been incorporated into the Council's common position and are fully supported by the Commission:

- Introducing specific derogations on the time limits for transmission where Member States will be unable to provide enough reliable data immediately the Regulation comes into force

The Commission recognises that the proposed time limits for the transmission of the main aggregates of quarterly national accounts could seriously affect the quality of the data transmitted by smaller Member States which have no established tradition of compiling quarterly national accounts. The Commission is aware that the risks associated with the negative impact that these timely but - for the moment - low-quality figures will have at national level will not be compensated by the advantages of having such figures available for the compilation of European aggregates. Since the compilation of European aggregates does not suffer if figures for small countries are not produced in time, the common position allows a gradual approach to the timely compilation of quarterly accounts for Ireland and Luxembourg, ensuring that the Regulation's objectives are reliably met as soon as possible.

- Introducing derogations on the transmission of specific aggregates where Member States will be unable to provide data immediately the Regulation comes into force

The Commission agrees that it is not an urgent priority to abrogate certain minor derogations originally included in Council Regulation (EC) N° 2223/96 for some Member States, when the importance of the aggregates concerned is relative and the burden placed on National Statistical Institutes by their abrogation is disproportionate to the expected benefits, especially for those derogations that do not affect the compilation of European aggregates. The common position keeps these derogations to a minimum so as not to impair the calculation of the euro-area and EU aggregates, and therefore to ensure that the Regulation's objectives are met as soon as possible.

- Introducing specific derogations on the first transmission of employment data in hours worked where Member States will be unable to provide enough reliable data immediately the Regulation comes into force

The Commission also accepts the Council's amendment in the common position introducing specific countries' derogations for the first transmission of employment data expressed in hours worked. This reflects practical difficulties in some Member States where reliable surveys will not be set up in time for the entry into force of the Regulation and takes account of the fact that hours-worked figures will be a complement to the already available employment figures.

- Abrogation of a number of derogations applying to Germany

The Commission agrees with the Council's amendment in the common position abrogating, at Germany's request, a number of derogations applying to that country. The German authorities have made great efforts to provide the data covered by those derogations, and they are therefore no longer required.

- Other changes

The Council has also slightly reworded the title of the Regulation and corrected the reference in Recital 2 to the Monetary Committee, since this is the body that made the report in question. These changes do not affect the substance of the proposed Regulation.

4. Conclusion

The common position fully addresses the objectives of the Regulation proposed by the Commission. It meets the immediate and urgent needs of users by respecting, at the same time, specific national situations. In addition it allows a gradual approach to meet more complete requirements in the future. For the reasons set out above, the Commission hereby expresses a favourable opinion on the common position of the Council adopted unanimously.