Proposal for a Council Directive on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea (94/C 214/07) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(94) 275 final - 94/0159(CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission on 4 July 1994)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 213 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Whereas to carry out the tasks entrusted to it in the context of the Community maritime policy, the Commission must have at its disposal comparable, reliable, synchronized and regular statistical data on the scale and development of the carriage of goods and passengers by sea to and from the Community, between Member States and for domestic sea transport;

Whereas there are currently no comprehensive Community-wide statistics on the transport of goods and passengers by sea;

Whereas Council Decision 93/464/EEC of 22 July 1993 on the framework programme for priority actions in the field of statistical information 1993 to 1997 (1) stressed the need to compile such comprehensive statistics;

Whereas the collection of Community statistical data on a comparable or harmonized basis enables the provision of an integrated system with reliable, consistent and up-to-date information;

Whereas the data on the transport of goods and passengers by sea have to be made comparable between Member States and, after a transition period, between the different modes of transport;

Whereas, within a certain period, the Commission is to submit a report reviewing the operation of this Directive;

Whereas for the application of this Directive, including the arrangements to adapt it to economic and technical developments, the Statistical Programme Committee, which was set up pursuant to Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (2), must be consulted;

Whereas, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, the creation of common statistical standards enabling the production of harmonized information can only be tackled efficiently at Community level, and that data will be collected in each Member State under the authority of the bodies and institutions in charge of compiling official statistics;

Whereas the Community should therefore, for the start-up period, make a financial contribution to Member States in respect of the work involved,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

General provision

Member States shall collect Community statistics on the carriage of goods and passengers by seagoing vessels calling at ports in the territories of the Member States.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive, the following terms shall have the meanings hereinafter assigned to them:

1. Carriage of goods and passengers by sea: the movement of goods and passengers using seagoing vessels, on voyages which are undertaken wholly or partly at sea.

The coverage of the data shall include goods:

(a) shipped to offshore installations;

(b) for dumping at sea;

(c) reclaimed from the sea bed and unloaded in ports.

The coverage of the data shall exclude bunkers and stores supplied to vessels.

2. Seagoing vessels: ships which actually go to sea, that is, outside the boundary within which inland waterway technical safety regulations apply, and within that in which seagoing regulations apply.

This Directive shall not apply to fish-catching vessels, fish-processing vessels, naval vessels or vessels used by public administration and public services.

3. Port: a place having commercial trading facilities for ships to moor and to load or discharge cargo or passengers to or from seagoing vessels.

Article 3

Data collection characteristics

1. The Member States shall compile statistical data relating to the following domains:

(a) Cargo and passenger information

(b) Information on the vessel

Vessels of less than 100 gross tonnes may be excluded.

2. The characteristics, the statistical variables in each domain and the nomenclatures for their classification, as well as their periodicity of observation, are set out in the Annexes to this Directive.

3. The data collection shall be based, in so far as possible, on available sources, limiting the burden on respondents.

Article 4

Ports

1. A list of ports, coded and classified to countries and maritime coastal areas, shall be drawn up by the Commission in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 13.

2. Each Member State shall select from this list the ports on its territory necessary to cover at least 90 % of the annual gross tonnage of all sea transport of goods and 90 % of all annual movements of passengers using its ports. Any port handling annually more than 1 million tonnes of goods or recording more than 200 000 passenger movements shall systematically be selected. For each port selected, detailed data are to be provided, in conformity with Annex IX, for the domains (goods and passengers) in which they meet a selection criterion, and with summary data, if appropriate, for the other domain.

3. For the ports on the list which are not selected, summary data are to be provided in conformity with Annex IX, 'Data Set A3`.

Article 5

Accuracy of statistics

The methods for the collection of data will need to be refined in order to ensure that Community sea transport statistics are produced with the precision appropriate for the data sets described in Annex IX. The standards of accuracy shall be drawn up by the Commission in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 13.

Article 6

Processing of results

Member States shall process the information collected under Article 3 in order to obtain comparable statistics with the accuracy standards required under Article 5.

Article 7

Transmission of results

1. Member States shall transmit the results referred to in Article 3 to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, including the data declared confidential by the Member States pursuant to domestic legislation or practice concerning statistical confidentiality, in accordance with the provisions of Council Regulation 1588/90 Euratom/EEC (3) on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

2. The results shall be transmitted in the form of a data file from which the data sets defined in Annex IX can be compiled. The data files and the media to be used for transmitting them will be specified by the Commission in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 13.

3. The transmission shall take place within five months of the end of the period of observation for data of quarterly periodicity and within eight months for data of annual periodicity. The first transmission shall cover the first quarter of 1995.

Article 8

Reports

1. Member States shall provide all relevant information concerning the methods used in compiling the data. They shall also forward to the Commission details of substantial changes in the methods used to collect the data.

2. After data have been collected over a period of three years, the Commission shall submit a report to the Council on experience acquired in the work carried out pursuant to this Directive.

Article 9

Dissemination of data

The Commission shall disseminate appropriate statistical results with a periodicity comparable to that of the results transmitted.

Article 10

Period of transition

1. The statistical data on goods (as defined in Annexes III and IX 'Data set B1`) shall be collected after a period of transition ending when technical developments permit.

The end of the transition period shall be determined by the Commission in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 13.

2. During the transition period, the Commission may, in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 13, accept derogations from the provisions of the present Directive, in so far as the national statistical systems require adaptation with regard to the coding of goods in sea transport.

Article 11

Financial contribution

1. For the first three years in which the returns of statistics provided for in this Directive are made, Member States shall receive a financial contribution from the Community towards the cost of the work involved.

2. The amount of the appropriations allocated annually for this task shall be fixed as part of the annual budgetary procedures.

3. The budgetary authority shall determine the appropriations available for each year.

Article 12

Committee

The arrangements for implementing this Directive, including measures for adaptation to economic and technical developments, in particular:

- adaptation of the data collection characteristics (Article 3) and of the contents of the Annexes of this Directive

- a list of ports, coded, updated on a regular basis by the Commission and classified by country and maritime coastal area (Article 4)

- accuracy requirements (Article 5)

- the description of the record of a data file and codes for transmission of the results to the Commission (Article 7)

- the end of the transition period (Article 10)

shall be laid down by the Commission, in consultation with the Statistical Programme Committee set up by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (4) and in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 13.

Article 13

Procedure

The Commission representative 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 in question, if necessary by taking a vote.

The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in addition, each Member State shall have the right to request that its position be recorded in the minutes.

The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion issued by the Committee. It shall inform the Committee of how its opinion has been taken into account.

Article 14

Implementation

1. The Member States shall adopt the legal and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 1 January 1995 at the latest. They shall immediately inform the Commission thereof.

2. The provisions adopted by the Member States shall contain a reference to this Directive or be accompanied by such a reference when published officially. The procedure for making this reference shall be laid down by the Member States.

Article 15

This Directive shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Article 16

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

(1) OJ No L 219, 28. 8. 1993, p. 1.

(2) OJ No L 181, 28. 6. 1989, p. 47.

(3) OJ No L 151, 15. 6. 1990, p. 1.

(4) OJ No L 181, 28. 6. 1989, p. 47.

ANNEX I

VARIABLES AND DEFINITIONS

STATISTICAL VARIABLES

(a) Cargo and passenger information:

- gross weight of goods in tonnes,

- type of cargo, according to the nomenclature shown in Annex II,

- description of the goods, using the nomenclature shown in Annex III,

- reporting port,

- direction of movement, whether inwards or outwards,

- for inward cargo: the port of loading (i.e. the port in which the cargo was loaded onto the ship in which it arrived in the reporting port) using individual ports in the European Economic Area shown in the Port List, and the Maritime Coastal Areas outside the European Economic Area shown in Annex IV,

- for outward cargo: the port of unloading (i.e. the port in which the cargo is to be unloaded from the ship in which it left the reporting port) using individual ports in the European Economic Area shown in the Port List, and the Maritime Coastal Areas outside the Europea Economic Area, shown in Annex IV,

- nationality of transport operator, using the Geonomenclature shown in Annex V,

- number of passengers starting or finishing a voyage.

For goods carried in containers or ro ro units, the following additional particulars shall be provided:

- number of containers with cargo,

- number of empty containers,

- number of mobile (ro ro) units with cargo,

- number of empty mobile (ro ro) units.

(b) Information on the vessel:

- number of vessels,

- deadweight of vessels,

- country or territory of registration of vessels, using the nomenclature shown in Annex VI,

- type of vessels, using the nomenclature shown in Annex VII,

- size of vessels, using the nomenclature shown in Annex VIII.

DEFINITIONS:

(a) Freight container: article of transport equipment:

1. of a permanent character and accordingly strong enough to be suitable for repeated use;

2. specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes of transport, without intermediate reloading;

3. fitted with devices permitting its ready handling, particularly its transfer from one mode of transport to another;

4. so designed as to be easy to fill and empty;

5. having a length of 20' or more.

(b) Ro ro unit: item of wheeled equipment for carrying cargo, such as a truck or trailer, which can be driven or towed onto a vessel. Port or ships trailers are included in this definition. Classifications should follow ECE Recommendation 19 'Codes for modes of transport`.

(c) Container cargo: goods in containers and empty containers which are lifted on or lifted off the vessels which carry them by sea.

(d) Ro ro cargo: goods, whether or not in containers, on ro ro units, and ro ro units which are rolled on and off the vessels which carry them by sea.

(e) Gross weight of goods: the tonnage of goods carried, including packaging but excluding the tare weight of containers or ro ro units.

(f) Maritime transport operator: the person responsible for the movement of cargo or passengers using the vessel. When acting as a third-party service provider, he is remunerated via the freight charges paid for the movement of the cargo or passengers carried by the vessel. Persons using the vessel for own-account movement of cargo are regarded as transport operators, irrespective of whether the vessel belongs to them or has been chartered.

(g) Nationality of the maritime transport operator: the country in which the effective centre of the transport operator's commercial activity is located.

ANNEX II

TYPE OF CARGO CLASSIFICATION

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ANNEX III

GOODS NOMENCLATURE

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ANNEX IV

MARITIME COASTAL AREAS

The nomenclature to be used is the Geonomenclature, approved for 1993 by Commission Regulation (EEC) No 208/93 of 1 February 1993 on the country nomenclature for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States (1) with the following exception: codes 017 and 018 are to be used for Belgium and Luxembourg respectively whenever they are to be considered separately.

The code consists of 4 digits: the three-digit code from the abovementioned nomenclature, followed by a zero (c.g. code 0030 for Netherlands), except for countries which are divided into two or more maritime coastal areas, which are identified by a fourth digit other than zero (from 1 to 7), as below:

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(1) OJ No L 25, 2. 2. 1993, p. 11.

ANNEX V

NATIONALITY OF TRANSPORT OPERATOR

The nomenclature to be used is the Geonomenclature, approved for 1993 by Commission Regulation (EEC) No 208/93 of 1 February 1993 on the country nomenclature for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States (1) with the following exception: codes 017 and 018 are to be used for Belgium and Luxembourg respectively whenever they are to be considered separately.

(1) OJ No L 25, 2. 2. 1993, p. 11.

ANNEX VI

NATIONALITY OF REGISTRATION OF VESSELS

The nomenclature to be used is the Geonomenclature, approved for 1993 by Commission Regulation (EEC) No 208/93 of 1 February 1993 on the country nomenclature for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States (1) with the following exception: codes 017 and 018 are to be used for Belgium and Luxembourg respectively whenever they are to be considered separetely.

The code consists of 4 digits: the three-digit code from the abovementioned nomenclature, followed by a zero (c.g. code 0010 for France), except for countries with more than one register.

Where more than one register exists, the countries are to be coded as follows:

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(1) OJ No L 25, 2. 2. 1993, p. 11.

ANNEX VII

TYPE OF SHIP CLASSIFICATION (ICST-COM)

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ANNEX VIII

VESSEL DEADWEIGHT SIZE CLASSES IN DWT

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ANNEX IX

STRUCTURE FOR STATISTICAL DATA SETS

The Data sets specified in this Annex define the periodicity for the maritime transport statistics required by the Community. Each Data set defines a cross classification of a limited set of dimensions at different levels of the nomenclatures, aggregated across all other dimensions, for which statistics of good quality are required.

Statistics on goods, Data set B, will be transmitted after a transition period by the end of which technical developments will have enabled goods to be coded by type (see Article 10).

Summary and detailed statistics

- The Data sets to be provided for selected ports for goods and passengers are: A1, A2, B1, C1, D1, E1 and F1.

- The Data sets to be provided for selected ports for goods but not for passengers are: A1, A2, A3, B1, C1, E1 und F1.

- The Data sets to be provided for selected ports for passengers but not for goods are: A1, D1 and F1.

- The Data set to be provided for ports which are not selected is: A3.

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