Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a Council Decision on the Community Statistical Programme 1998-2002'
Date: 1998-05-27
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU policy, EU programme, EU statistics, Eurostat, data collection

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the overriding concern remains the protection of public
health.

3.5.1. However, the Committee deeply regrets that
the Community rules on health problems in intra-

Community trade in bovine animals have not been fully
implemented, and again calls on the Commission to
draw up the report mentioned in 3.4 above and submit
it to the other EU institutions.

Brussels, 27 May 1998.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Council Decision on
the Community Statistical Programme 1998-2002’

(98/C 235/14)

On 31 March 1998 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, in
accordance with Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the
above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Economic, Financial and Monetary Questions, which was responsible for
preparing the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 12 May 1998. The
rapporteur was Mr Vasco Cal.

At its 355th plenary session held on 27 and 28 May 1998 (meeting of 27 May), the Economic
and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 118 votes for, none against and with
five abstentions.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
The Commission is presenting its fifth five-year
programme prepared by Eurostat. The programme will
be the subject of a Council Decision in accordance with
Article 3(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97
on Community statistics. Regulation (EC) No 322/97
stipulates that the Community should have timely access
to statistical information which is comparable between
the Member States and is up-to-date, reliable, relevant
and produced as efficiently as possible for the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of its poli-
cies.

1.2.
Regulation (EC) No 322/97 also stipulates that
the Community’s statistical programme must define the
‘approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the
actions envisaged for a period not exceeding five years’.
The Commission continues this policy in its present
programme by setting itself the objective of ‘providing
the European Union with a high-quality statistical
information service’, and rising to three challenges, viz.:
meeting the needs of Community policies, improving
cooperation between Eurostat and national statistical
services (which together form the Community Statistical
Service (CSS), and fixing priorities.

The Commission identifies four categories of

1.3.
priorities:

— policy priorities of the Community;

— major statistical or infrastructure projects;

— evolutionary maintenance of systems supporting

existing policy needs;

— other statistical indicators required.

The programme will cost between EURO 83 and

1.4.
95 million per year.

The programme spells out proposed action in

1.5.
the following key areas:

— Free movement of goods;

— Agriculture;

— Free movement of persons, services and capital;

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— Transport;

— Common rules on competition,

taxation and

approximation of laws;

— Economic and monetary policy;

— Common commercial policy;

— Social policy, education, vocational training and

youth;

— Culture;

— Public health;

— Consumer protection;

— Trans-European networks;

— Industry;

— Economic and social cohesion;

— Research and technological development;

— Environment;

— Development cooperation;

— Statistical work not covered by Treaty titles.

1.6.
This list follows the order of the titles in the EC
Treaty and does not therefore indicate priorities. The
Commission does however give clear priority to:

— Economic and Monetary Union,

— Competitiveness, Growth and Employment,

— EU enlargement.

1.7.
Last but not least, the Commission indicates not
only priorities in each statistical area, but also those
actions where Eurostat is experiencing delays or post-
ponements due to financial constraints.

had not expressed any reservations in principle on the
Commission proposal.

2.2.
In November 1992 the Committee delivered an
Opinion on, inter alia, a Proposal for a Council Decision
on the framework programme for priority actions in
the field of statistical information 1993-1997 (3). This
opinion concluded that there was a certain imbalance
between political and methodological priorities and
argued in favour of ‘an alignment of the capacities of
national statistical systems on the highest possible level.’
The opinion also cast doubts on the chances of being
able to fully implement the ‘ambitious’ programme of
the Commission.

3. General comments

3.1.
The Economic and Social Committee welcomes
the opportunity to express its views on the Community’s
fifth statistical programme. The Committee realizes in
its daily work how useful it is to have effective and
comprehensive statistical services at Community and
national
levels. The Committee does not intend to
discuss the basic characteristics of such services in this
present opinion since the matter has already been
exhaustively dealt with in Regulation (EC) No 322/97
and in the Committee opinion on the Commission’s
draft regulation. The Committee would nevertheless
emphasize that the European Union needs a statistical
system which meets criteria of independence and is
adequately funded.

The Committee considers that the Commission
3.2.
makes a sufficiently clear distinction in the proposal
under discussion between methodology and the action
to be taken in support of Community policies. The
Committee does not however believe that the European
Union has hitherto made sufficient progress in harmo-
nizing national statistical systems. In general the harmo-
nization of Community statistics comes after the for-
mulation and implementation of the respective Com-
munity policies.

2. Earlier work

In April 1994 (1) the Committee delivered an
2.1.
opinion on the Commission proposal which culminated
in the Council Regulation of 17 February 1997 (2) on
Community statistics In other words the Council needed
almost three years before being able to take a final
decision on this important matter. The Committee itself

3.3.
The Committee regrets in particular that national
services continue to divulge statistics which are in no
way comparable, even though efforts have been made
to give Eurostat the information necessary for compara-
bility. An area where this is particularly evident concerns
statistics on employment and unemployment. Far too
often the collection of national statistics is based on
different interpretations of the harmonized rules on

(1) OJ C 195, 18.7.1994.
(2) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997.

(3) OJ C 19, 25.1.1993.

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statistics agreed at Community level. This can result in
Community policies being applied in a discriminatory
fashion.

needs in the interests of the adoption of a definitive
VAT regime in the Community.

3.4.
The Committee approves the Commission’s pri-
orities given the inadequate financial resources allocated
to Eurostat. It would nevertheless urge that economic
and social cohesion be added to the three priorities listed
in Article 2 of the proposal for a decision. The existence
of reliable and rapidly available regional statistics (1)
is indeed absolutely essential for effecting transfers
between countries and regions without which there can
be no economic and social cohesion — still one of the
priority objectives of the European Union.

3.5.
The Committee regrets the delay or post-
ponement of action in certain statistical areas resulting
from the lack of human and financial resources. An
example of such a delay is in the statistics on investment.
This is unfortunate in that the interpretation of invest-
ment statistics is essential to macro-economic policy
and hence to the success of the (economic) growth and
(monetary) stability policies pursued on the basis of EC
Treaty Article 103. It is also likely to have serious
consequences when fines are imposed on certain
countries under the Stability and Growth Pact.

3.6.
The Economic and Social Committee approves
the proposal for a Council Decision, taking into account
the general and specific comments which precede or
follow this point.

4. Specific comments

4.1.
The Committee considers that in Title VI (eco-
nomic and monetary policy) the Commission should
make out a clearer case for the development of a
common methodology on the collection of statistics on
consumer price trends and purchasing power parities.
Purchasing power parities at regional level, together with
references to urban centres, merit particular attention.
Such statistics are necessary not only to monitor the
convergence of Member State policies (Article 103 of
the EC Treaty) but also for the needs of Title XIV
(economic and social cohesion).

4.2.
The Committee wonders whether the Com-
mission could not give a clearer indication of statistical

4.2.1.
The choice of a definitive VAT regime, in-
volving taxation in the country of origin and not in the
country of consumption, will oblige the Member States
to agree on a compensation scheme to avoid losses of
revenue. This change will require a more complete
harmonization of the macroeconomic aggregates used
in national accounts to offset the loss of such information
as that provided by the present VAT regime.

The Committee realizes that the requirement to
4.3.
provide statistics can place a heavy burden on enterprises,
particularly SMEs. The cost borne by enterprises could
however be substantially reduced:

— by consolidating the statistics required by different

administrations,

— by using new information technologies (Internet,
etc.) whilst bearing in mind the need to protect
confidential information.

4.4.
In most cases, however, there are also corre-
sponding benefits since enterprises can make use of the
statistics to which they have contributed in defining
their marketing strategies, etc. Information campaigns
launched in seminars and via the Internet might also
bring business leaders to a better understanding of the
usefulness of statistics and above all encourage them to
make more effective use of statistics themselves. Member
States could help trade associations develop software,
thereby turning statistics into management tools for the
entrepreneur.

4.5.
The Committee finds that comparable Com-
munity statistics on unemployment and employment are
totally inadequate. Not only do methods of collecting
statistics vary greatly from one Member State to another,
but there is a lack of accurate data on various part-time
working schemes, fixed-term contracts and the individ-
ual preferences of workers on working hours and the
duration of work contracts. Such statistics are vital for
the Union’s employment policy and for the employment
programmes which Member States are required to draw
up in this context.

(1) Including urban areas, bearing in mind the new proposals
for amending the regulations on the Structural Funds.

4.6.
The Committee agrees that the ‘quality of Com-
munity statistics is conditioned by the quality of the
data provided to Eurostat’ and that ‘the ultimate goal

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of the CSS is to meet all needs for statistics in the EU in
an integrated and harmonized manner’ (see point 2.2 of
the Commission document). The Committee therefore
feels that it is very important to improve and develop

the CSS, including national statistical institutes, and
work out new working methods so as to make available
at the right time the statistics necessary for the major
policy decisions of the EU.

Brussels, 27 May 1998.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Council Regulation
(EC) amending Regulation (EEC) No 404/93 on the common organization of the market in
bananas’ (1)

(98/C 235/15)

On 27 January 1998 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee,
under Articles 43 and 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on
the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Agriculture and Fisheries, which was responsible for preparing the Committee’s
work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 12 May 1998. The rapporteur was Mr Espuny
Moyano.

At its 355th plenary session (meeting of 27 May 1998) the Economic and Social Committee
adopted the following opinion by 82 votes to 16 with 19 abstentions.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
In its proposal the Commission amends those
aspects of the CMO which have been condemned in the
reports of the World Trade Organization’s Panel and
Appellate Body so as to bring Community arrangements
for the import of bananas into line with WTO rules.

The Commission document is based on the

1.2.
following points:

1.2.1.
A tariff quota of 2,2 million tonnes for imports
of third country bananas (at a duty rate of ECU 75/t)
and non-traditional ACP bananas (nil duty).

1.2.2.
An additional tariff quota of 353 000 tonnes at
a duty rate of ECU 300/t for third country bananas and
ECU 100/t for non-traditional ACP bananas.

1.2.3.
(B licences and allocation by activity) is scrapped.

The present

system of

import

licences

(1) OJ C 75, 11.3.1998, p. 6.

A system of import licences is proposed based
1.2.4.
on traditional
trade flows (traditionals/newcomers
method). The arrangements for the practical manage-
ment of the system will be laid down in the Commission’s
implementing rules which will be adopted by the
management committee procedure.

1.2.5.
Should there be no reasonable possibility of
securing agreement of all WTO contracting parties with
a substantial interest (Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador
and Panama), the Commission will be authorized to
allocate a specific quota to each of these four countries.

1.2.6.
The traditional ACP quantities will not be
allocated between countries; a maximum quantity of
857 700 tonnes is set.

The proposed additional autonomous tariff
1.2.7.
quota may be increased if demand in the Community
rises as indicated by a balance sheet of production,
consumption, imports and exports. The elements of the
balance sheet,
its adoption and the increase in the
additional quota are determined under the management
committee procedure.