EN Official Journal of the European Union C 118/33

Communication from the EFTA Surveillance Authority concerning derogations by Norway from the provisions of the Act referred to at point 1 of Annex XXI to the EEA Agreement, Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 concerning structural business statistics, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90, as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains

(2008/C 118/14)

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics, as adapted by way of Protocol 1 to the EEA Agreement and referred to at point 1 of Annex XXI thereto (hereinafter ‘the Act’), established a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the European Economic Area. Article 11 of the Act provides that derogations from the provisions of the Annexes thereto may be accepted during a transitional period.

Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains (hereinafter ‘Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006’) has been incorporated into point 20c of Annex XXI to the EEA Agreement by EEA Joint Committee Decision No 61/2007 (OJ L 393, 30.12.2006, p. 1). Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 amends the Act as to definitions of the variables laid down in the Annexes to the Act, which are described in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006.

The EFTA Surveillance Authority is entrusted with the task of accepting derogations in accordance with Article 12 of the Act as regards applications from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97, Norway applied for partial and complete derogation from transfer of certain data contained in Annex 7 of the Act as amended by Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006.

The EFTA Surveillance Authority has granted the following derogations, in accordance with the opinion of 26 November 2007 of the EFTA Heads of National Statistical Institutes Assisting the EFTA Surveillance Authority:

Annual enterprise statistics 2005 to 2007 Title Annual enterprise statistics broken down 2005 to 2007 Title Complete, partial or no derogation Partial derogation Partial derogation Extra transmission period needed None None Missing variables 48 031 Regular pension payments Annual enterprise statistics broken down by geographical breakdown 48 032 Pension payments of lump sums 48 610 Geographical breakdown of turnover 48 120 Investments in affiliated enterprises and participating interests (PF) 48 640 Total investments broken down into euro and non-euro components 48 132 Shares traded on a regulated market specialised in SMEs 48 101 Total investments in ‘the sponsoring enterprise’ 48 705 Number of deferred members Other points None None