EN Official Journal of the European Union C 103/1

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 31 March 2010

on a proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 as regards the quality of statistical data in the context of the excessive deficit procedure

(CON/2010/28)

2010/C 103/01

On 8 March 2010 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Council of the European Union for an opinion on a proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 as regards the quality of statistical data in the context of the excessive deficit procedure (1) (hereinafter the ‘proposed regulation’).

The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union since national central banks (NCBs) assist in or contribute to the compilation of statistics under Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 of 25 May 2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community (2). Moreover, they report government finance statistics to the ECB for the purpose of the performance of European System of Central Banks (ESCB) tasks as referred to in Article 127(5) of the Treaty. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion.

General observation

The ECB supports the proposed regulation as a very important step towards improving the quality of the statistics referred to in Regulation (EC) No 479/2009.

Specific observations

The ECB stresses that it is very important that the Member States provide the Commission (Eurostat) with access to all of the information that the Commission requires for assessing the quality of data. The ECB also considers that for this purpose a more detailed list than that proposed to be included in Article 8(2) would be beneficial in order to increase clarity and certainty as to what kind of information may be requested. It should be clear that the list is non-exhaustive.

In the same vein, the ECB considers that introducing in Article 11(3) some examples could clarify when methodological visits are required. Frequent and sizeable data revisions, persistent unexplained stock-flow adjustments and unresolved problems concerning methodological issues may give cause for concern and therefore warrant a methodological visit, which the ECB believes is an excellent means of improving the quality of data. Of course, the provisions in Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 concerning these visits, and the other provisions aimed at improving data quality, can only be truly effective when applied in full.

Furthermore, the ECB believes that the definition of ‘government deficit (surplus)’ in Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 should be aligned with international statistical standards. The ECB therefore proposes to use the deficit (B.9) from the national accounts for the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) as in the early years of this procedure. This would have the added benefit of increasing the transparency of the reporting process, since by excluding settlements under swaps arrangements and forward rate agreements from the deficit used for the EDP the deficit figures become less susceptible to manipulations carried out by way of complex financial transactions.

To improve data quality, the ECB would moreover like to ensure that the compilation of the planned data is based on the most up-to-date available information, using monthly and quarterly outturns where available. Ideally, the quality of these planned data should also be scrutinised.

In addition, the ECB believes that the Commission should be given more time to assess the actual data and would favour extending the period referred to in Article 14 by one week to four weeks. Extending this period also requires earlier data transmissions by the Member States, in order not to disrupt the administrative processes (including, for example, the preparation of convergence reports) in which these data are used. Hence, the ECB proposes to advance the reporting deadlines in the future. As the ECB understands that an amendment of Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (3) (i.e. the European System of Accounts (ESA) transmission programme) is currently under discussion, the respective deadlines should be aligned to avoid consistency problems.

Finally, the ECB considers it important that the national statistical authorities have access to the information needed to ensure the compliance of reported data with Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 and the underlying ESA 95 accounting rules.

Where the ECB recommends that the proposed regulation is amended, specific drafting proposals are set out in the Annex accompanied by explanatory text to this effect.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 31 March 2010. The President of the ECB Jean-Claude TRICHET

(1) COM(2010) 53 final.

(2) OJ L 145, 10.6.2009, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1.