Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) amending, with respect to statistical territory, Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries
Date: 1997-01-10
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Canary Islands, EU statistics, French overseas department and region, customs territory (EU), trading operation

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN  COMMUNITIES 

Brussels,  10.01.1997 
COM(96) 719 final 

97/0015  (ACQ 

Proposal  for a 

COUNCIL  REGULATION  (EC) 

amending,  with  respect  to  statistical  territory,  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1172/95  on  the 
statistics  relating  to  the  trading  of  goods  by  the  Community  and  its  Member  States  with 
non-member countries, 

(presented  by  the  Commission) 

EXPLANATORY  MEMORANDUM 

Subject:  Proposal  for  a  Council  Regulation  (EC)  amending  Council  Regulation  (EC) 
No  1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community 
and  its Member  States  with  non-member  countries,  concerning  the  statistical 
territory 

1. In accordance with  Article 3(1) of Council  Regulation  (EC) No  1172/95 the  statistical 
territory  for  statistics  relating  to  external  trade  corresponds  to  the  customs  territory 
defined by the Community customs code. 

2.  The  second  paragraph  of  the  same  Article,  however,  states  that  the  French  overseas 
departments  and  the  Canary  Islands  form  an  exception  to  this  rule  and  are  therefore 
excluded from the statistical territory. 

3.  However,  France  and  Spain  have  requested  that  these  territories  be  included  in  the 
Community  statistical  territory  further  to  similar  national  decisions.  This  is  a  measure 
which, by reducing the number of exceptions, improves the harmonisation of concepts. 

4.  By  implementing  this  amendment,  the  French  overseas  departments  and  the  Canary 
Islands  will  no  longer  be  considered  non-member  countries  for  the  purpose  of  external 
trade statistics; trading of goods between  these territories  and Member  States  other than 
France  and  Spain  respectively  become  intracommunity  trade  with  these  Member  States; 
trading  between  the French  overseas  departments  and  France  or  the  Canary  Islands  and 
Spain  disappear  from  Community  statistics  and  finally,  trading  between  these  territories 
and non-member countries will be considered  trading between France and  Spain and non-
member countries. 

5. It is therefore  necessary to amend  Article 3(2) and Article 4(1) of Regulation  (EC)  No 
1172/95 by deleting the parts referring to the French overseas departments and the Canary 
Islands. 

PROPOSAL FOR 

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) N° 
of 

/96 

amending,  with  respect  to  statistical  territory,  Council Regulation  (EC) No 1172/95  on the 
statistics  relating  to  the  trading  of  goods  by  the  Community  and  its  Member  States  with 
non-member countries, 

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

having  regard  to  the  Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community,  and  in  particular 
Article 113 thereof 

having regard to the proposal from the Commission, 

whereas the decision by the French Republic to include the overseas departments in France's 
statistical territory as from 1 January 1997, 

whereas  the  decision  by  the  Kingdom  of  Spain  to  include  the  Canary  Islands  in  Spain's 
statistical territory as from the same date, 

whereas the  definition  of the  statistical  territory  of the  Community  set  out  in  Article  3  of 
Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/951 and the field of application of the statistics relating to 
the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries as 
defined in Article 4 of the above-mentioned Regulation need to be adapted accordingly, 

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION 

Article 1 

Council Regulation (EC) N° 1172/95 shall be amended as follows: 

1) Article 3(2) shall be replaced by the following: 

"By  way  of  derogation  from  paragraph  1,  the  statistical  territory  of  the  Community  shall 
include Helgoland." 

2) The second paragraph of Article 4(1) shall be deleted. 

Article 2 

This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 1997. 

OJN°L  118 of 25.05.1995, p. 10. 

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 

Done at Brussels, 

for the Council 

ISSN 0254-1475 

COM(96) 719 final 

DOCUMENTS 

EN 

17 

Catalogue number  :  CB-C0-96-731-EN-C 

ISBN 92-78-14113-5 

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