Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States'
Date: 1997-10-29
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU statistics, common commercial policy, exchange of information, intra-EU trade, trading operation

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can provide a sound basis for the implementation of the
Commission’s tax policy strategies in the future, as the

cooperation of national tax authorities is particularly
important here.

Brussels, 29 October 1997.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a European Parliament
and Council Regulation (EC) amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the
statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States’ (1)

(98/C 19/15)

On 24 October 1997, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 100 A of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned
proposal.

The Section for Economic, Financial and Monetary Questions, which was responsible for the
preparatory work, adopted its opinion on 14 October 1997. The Rapporteur working without
a study group was Mr Walker.

At its 349th Plenary Session of 29 and 30 October 1997 (meeting of 29 October 1997) the
Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 113 votes to 2 with
8 abstentions.

1.

Introduction

Intrastat is the system which lays down the rules
1.1.
for the collection and compilation of statistics relating
to the trading of goods between Member States. It was
introduced on 1 January 1993, following the abolition
of customs formalities within the European Community,
and will end on the date of change-over to an origin-based
common system of VAT. The Commission’s proposal
would reduce the compliance burden on businesses by
removing some of the data which they are currently
required to provide.

1.1.1.
The Intrastat system is based on the principle of
direct data collection from intra-Community operators
whose total intra-EU purchases or sales exceed a certain
annual threshold; at present, the level of this threshold
differs from one Member State to another. Those
businesses which exceed the threshold applicable in
their Member State are obliged to submit a monthly
declaration of their despatches and arrivals of goods.
This declaration has replaced the copy of the customs
declaration which previously served as a statistical
medium.

(1) OJ C 203, 3. 7. 1997, p. 10.

1.1.2.
A similar system, Extrastat, exists for the
collection and compilation of statistics relating to the
trading of goods between Member States and non-EU
countries.

1.2.
Under the Intrastat system, a Supplementary
Declaration (SD) form must be submitted monthly,
showing for each transaction various items of infor-
mation, including:

a)

in the Member State of arrival, the Member State of
consignment of the goods;

b) in the Member State of despatch, the Member State

of destination of the goods;

c)

the delivery terms;

d) the quantity of the goods in net mass and supplemen-

tary units;

the value of the goods;

the nature of the transaction;

the presumed mode of transport.

e)

f)

g)

1.3.
In addition, Member States are at present allowed
to require that the following information be shown on
the statistical data medium:

a)

in the Member State of arrival, the country of origin;
however, this item may be required only as allowed

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by Community law;
in this context, country of
origin means the country where the goods were
manufactured or originated as opposed to country
of consignment, which means the Member State
from which the goods were shipped or, where
applicable, the last Member State in which they were
transhipped prior to reaching the Member State of
arrival;

b) in the Member State of despatch, the region of

origin;

c)

in the Member State of arrival, the region of
destination;

d) in the Member State of despatch, the port or airport

of loading;

e)

f)

in the Member State of arrival, the port or airport
of unloading;

in the Member State of despatch and in the Member
State of arrival, the presumed port or airport of
transhipment situated in another Member State,
provided that the latter prepares transit statistics;

g) where appropriate, statistical procedure.

1.3.1. Member States are not permitted to require
any information other than that listed above to be
shown on the statistical data medium.

After three years of system application, it has
1.4.
emerged from data analysis, from the results of a survey
of providers of statistical information (PSIs) and users,
and from the conclusions of a seminar attended by all
system participants, that the task of supplying this
information is often difficult and restricting and that
the statistics produced are sometimes of inadequate
quality and limited relevance.

1.5. On 24 February 1996, the ministers responsible
for the Internal Market decided to take steps to simplify
legislation relating to the Internal Market, under the
SLIM initiative, and the Intrastat system was one of the
projects chosen.

1.5.1.
A team, comprising representatives of up to
five Member States and a number of trade representatives
reported on 31 October 1996 and recommended a
package of changes to the Intrastat system. This report
was approved by the Council on 26 November 1996.

2. The Commission’s proposals

2.1.
The details of delivery terms would no longer be
required to be shown on the SD but Member States
would have the option to prescribe that this information
should continue to be provided until 31 December 1999.

2.2.
The presumed mode of transport would be
removed from the SD but this would not take effect
until 1 January 2000.

2.2.1.
This delay is necessary to allow some Member
States to adapt their national statistical systems to EU
standards. The date of 1 January 2000 coincides with
the expiry of the derogations in this respect currently
granted to those Member States.

2.2.2. Nevertheless, in those Member States which
already apply Directives 78/546/EEC, 80/1117/EEC,
80/1119/EEC and 95/64/EC in full, or can provide the
data by other means, the Commission may authorise
removal of this information from the statistical data
medium at an earlier date.

2.3. With immediate effect, Member States would no
longer be permitted to prescribe the provision of any
additional information except, in the Member State of
arrival, the country of origin and (until 31 December
1999) the delivery terms.

2.3.1.
The Commission considers that the right to
require optional data should be abolished in order to
reduce the burden on PSIs and to ensure equality of
treatment of PSIs across the EU, except for the reporting
of the country of origin, which is deemed to be
of particular benefit to numerous users and should
therefore be retained.

2.4.
The power to fix transmission deadlines for the
submission of the statistical data medium by PSIs would
be removed from the Commission and vested in the
national administrations of Member States.

2.5.
In the interests of transparency, the Commission
would undertake to publish in the Official Journal of
the European Communities, C series, details of what
data was required by each Member State.

3. General Comments

In its Opinion (1) on the Report of the Com-
3.1.
mission on the SLIM Pilot Project, the ESC stated that,
‘The Committee shares the opinion of the EC that
over-complicated regulation carries a high economic
cost, endangering the competitiveness of industry and
its employment-creating potential. All regulation —
whether at Community or national level — must be
fully justified and proportional to its objectives. This
applies both to new legislative initiatives and to existing
legislation.’

3.2.
The ESC therefore approves the present pro-
posals of the Commission as giving effect to the

(1) OJ C 206, 7. 7. 1997.

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objectives of the SLIM initiative to produce simpler,
more transparent and more effective legislation and as
being in line with the recommendations of the Intrastat
team which participated in the pilot project.

3.2.1.
The reduction in the amount of information
required would bring a welcome element of simplifi-
cation to the Intrastat SD form; the publication of details
of the data requirements of each Member State in
the Official Journal, C series, would enhance the
transparency of the process; and the effectiveness of the
legislation should be increased because a reduction in
the compliance burden is likely to lead to higher levels
of compliance.

3.3. However, the Committee feels that there is scope
for doing more in this area. In its Opinion on the Report
of the Commission on the SLIM Pilot Project it stated
that, ‘The lack of consistency between national and
Community level legislation also causes problems for
business and for the public.’

3.4.
In this context, the ESC considers that it would
be a further improvement if the SD form were absolutely
standard across the whole of the European Union, in
order to assist businesses with branches or subsidiaries

Brussels, 29 October 1997.

in more than one Member State and to improve the
uniformity of the data collected. At present, there are
variations between Member States, such as the way in
which the state code is entered, and this increases
the compliance burden on businesses. Standardisation
should be by way of reducing the form to the simplest
one currently in use, not by creating a form equivalent
to the most complex extant example.

3.5.
The ESC notes with approval that Member States
would no longer be permitted to require the inclusion
of a large measure of additional information on the SD
there is
form. However,
nothing to prevent Member States from requiring such
information to be provided on other forms of national
origin and hopes that Member States will not frustrate
the working of the SLIM initiative by demanding this
information in other ways.

it would point out

that

4. Conclusions

The ESC endorses the Commission’s proposals
4.1.
but would like to see their beneficial impact on businesses
enhanced by standardisation of the SD form across the
European Union on the pattern of the least complex of
the existing forms.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS