position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the

2013/0226 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION

TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT



pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union



concerning the

position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures

(Text with EEA relevance)

1.Background

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and to the Council COM(2013) 484 – 2013/0226 (COD) 28 June 2013 Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee: NA Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 11 March 2014 Date of transmission of the amended proposal: NA Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 18 July 2016

2.Objective of the proposal from the Commission

The sole objective of the Commission’s proposal is to align Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) as far as delegated and implementing powers are concerned.

The proposed Regulation would empower the Commission to adopt delegated acts for the purpose of: i) adapting the threshold for statistical coverage of inland waterways transport, adapting the existing definitions and adopting additional definitions and ii) adapting the scope of the data collection and the content of the Annexes.

It would also confer implementing powers on the Commission with a view to ensuring uniform conditions under which it can: i) set standard rules on the arrangements for Member States to submit data to the Commission (Eurostat) including data interchange standards and on the dissemination of results by the Commission (Eurostat) and ii) develop and publish methodological requirements and criteria designed to ensure the quality of the data produced, in accordance with the examination procedure laid down in Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 .

3.Comments on the position of the Council

3.1General comments

The position of the Council reflects on the one hand the agreement reached between the Council, the European Parliament Transport and Tourism Committee and the Commission in the tripartite discussions and, on the other hand, the new Inter-Institutional Agreement on Better law-making of 13 April 2016.

The Council adopted its position at first reading on 18 July 2016.

The Council’s position is acceptable for the Commission.

3.2Comments on the amendments adopted by the European Parliament

3.2.1.European Parliament amendments included in full, in part or in principle in Council's position at first reading

The main issue addressed in the inter-institutional discussions was the introduction of pilot studies and their nature. Such studies had been proposed as a compromise in response to the European Parliament’s request to include additional variables on passengers transport by inland waterways in the Regulation.

The new Article 4a stipulates that the Commission will launch voluntary pilot studies to be carried out by Member States providing information on the availability of statistical data on passengers transport by inland waterways and inland waterway cross-border services. The Commission (Eurostat), will work with Member States, to determine the appropriate statistical methodology. Moreover, the general budget shall contribute to financing these pilot studies where appropriate and taking into account the added value for the Union. The new Article is therefore acceptable for the Commission.