Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending Articles 6 and 9 of 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: 1997-10-13
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, foreign trade, statistical method, statistical nomenclature, trading operation

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels,  13.10.1997 
COM(97) 508  final 

97/ 0252 (ACQ 

Proposal  for a 

COUNCIL  REGULATION  (EC) 

amending Articles 6 and 9 of 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  Articles  6  and  9  of 
Regulation  (EC)  N°  1172/95  on  the  statistics  relating  to  the trading  of  goods  by  the 
Community and its Member States with non-member countries 

1.  The  Community  rules  on  the  statistics  relating  to  the  trading  of  goods  with 
non-member  countries  consist  of  Council  Regulation  (EC)  N°  1172/95©  (basic 
Regulation)  and  Commission  Regulation  (EC) N°  840/96  (implementing  Regulation). 
A Commission Regulation  which  annually lays down the country  nomenclature  is also 
part of the legislation governing the above-mentioned  statistics. 

2. The French overseas departments (DOM) and the Canary Islands have recently been 
included  in the statistical  territory  of the Community  (cf.  Council Regulation  (EC) N° 
476/97©); these territories were previously regarded  as non-member  countries and  for 
the purposes  of external trade statistics were not part  of the  statistical  territory  of the 
European  Union.  This amendment  therefore  means that  the basic Regulation  must  be 
adapted accordingly. 

3.  Furthermore,  some  Commission  departments  have,  with  the  agreement  of  the 
Member  States,  requested  that  the  coding  system  currently  used  for  the  country 
nomenclature  be  changed.  For  the  past  twenty  years  or  so  the  countries  have  been 
identified  by a numerical code, but  it is proposed,  for  practical  reasons and in order to 
align more closely with international  conventions, that an alphabetical code in line with 
the ISO-alpha2 standard be used. Before this new nomenclature, which will be adopted 
by  a  Commission  Regulation,  can  be  introduced,  the  necessary  adaptations  must  be 
made to the basic Regulation. 

4.  Therefore  Articles  6  and  9  of  Regulation  (EC)  N°  1172/95  must  be  amended  in 
accordance with the proposal  presented. 

©  JO N° L  118, 25.05.1995, p. 10 
© J O N ° L 7 5,  15.03.1997, p. 1 

<L 

Proposa! for a 

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No .../.. 

of 

amending Articles 6 and 9 of 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  following  the  amendment  of  the  statistical  territory  of  the  Community  on  1 
January  1997 by  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  476/97(0  amending  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 references  to the former  definition  of the 
statistical  territory  must  be  deleted;  whereas  Article  6  (1)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1172/95(2) must therefore be amended; 

Whereas from  1 January  1999 the  country  nomenclature  currently  used  for  the  statistics 
relating to the trading of goods will be replaced  by an alphabetical  nomenclature based on 
the ISO alpha-2 code; whereas, in this new context  and for the sake of harmonisation, all 
the  Member  States  must  use  the  same  nomenclature  when  compiling  statistics  and 
transmitting  them  to  Eurostat;  whereas  it  is  therefore  necessary  to  amend  Article  9  of 
Regulation  (EC) No  1172/95 by deleting  the  possibility  accorded  the Member  States  of 
using other country nomenclatures at the collection stage; 

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 

Article 1 

Regulation (EC) No  1172/95 shall be amended as follows: 

1. 

In Article 6(1): 
a) in subparagraph  (a), the second  indent is deleted; 
b) in subparagraph  (b), the third indent is deleted; 
c) subparagraph (c) is replaced by the following: 

"(c) the goods referred  to in Article 4(1), second  subparagraph." 

2. 

In Article 9: 
a) paragraph 2 is replaced by the following: 

"2.  The code specified  in the country nomenclature referred  to in paragraph 1 

must be given for each country." 

b) paragraph 3 is deleted. 

C1)  OJL75of  15.03.1997, p. 1 

(2)  OJL  118 of 25.05.1995, p.10. 

Q 

Article 2 

This regulation  shall enter into force  on the twentieth day following  its publication  in the 
Official  Journal of the European Communities. 

The provisions of Article  1 (2) shall apply from  1  January 1999. 

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

Done at Brussels, 

For the Council 

2 

ISSN 0254-1475 

COM(97) 508 final 

EN 

Catalogue  number  :  CB-C0-97-519-EN-C 

ISBN  92-78-25695-1 

Office  for Official  Publications of the European Communities 

L-2985  Luxembourg 

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