1999/126/EC: Council Decision of 22 December 1998 on the Community statistical programme 1998 to 2002
Date: 1998-12-22
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU statistics, Economic and Monetary Union, competitiveness, economic growth, employment policy, enlargement of the Union

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II

(Acts  whose  publication  is  not  obligatory)

COUNCIL

COUNCIL  DECISION

of  22  December  1998

on  the  Community  statistical  programme  1998  to  2002

(1999/126/EC)

THE  COUNCIL  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  UNION,

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  establishing  the  European
Community,  and  in  particular  Article  213  thereof,

States  which  is  up  to  date,  reliable,  pertinent  and
produced  as  efficiently  as  possible  for  the  design,
implementation,  monitoring  and  evaluation  of 
its
policies;

Having  regard  to  the  draft  Decision  submitted  by  the
Commission,

Whereas 
the  availability  of  up-to-date  comparable
statistics  of  good  quality  is  often  a  necessary  condition
for  implementing  Community  policies;

Having  regard 
Parliament (1),

to 

the  opinion  of 

the  European

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee (2),

Whereas,  in  accordance  with  Article  3(1)  of  the  Council
Regulation  (EC)  No  322/97  of  17  February  1997  on
Community 
statistical
programme  should  be  established;

a  Community 

statistics (3) 

Whereas  economic  and  monetary  union  is  imposing
substantial  demands  on  the  supply  of  monetary,  balance
of  payments  and  financial  statistics  for  the  Community;

Whereas in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97,
the  Community  should  be  able  to  have  timely  access  to
statistical  information  comparable  between  the  Member

of 

statistical 

in  order  to  unsure  the  consistency  and
Whereas, 
the
comparability 
Community,  there  is  a  need  to  establish  a  medium-term
Community  statistical  programme  which  identifies  the
approaches,  the  main  fields  and  the  objectives  of  the
actions  envisaged  in  respect  of  these  priorities;

information 

in 

Whereas  in  certain  areas  covered  by  various  Community
policies  a  breakdown  of  data  by  gender  is  important;

Whereas  the  specific  method  of  drawing  up  Community
statistics  requires  particularly  close  cooperation  within  a
developing community statistical system via the Statistical
Programme  Committee,  set  up  by  Decision  89/382/EEC,
Euratom (4),  as  regards  the  adaptation  of  the  system,
instruments
introduction  of 
notably  via 
necessary  to  establish  the  said  Community  statistics  and

legal 

the 

(1)  OJ  C  328,  26.10.1998,  p.  227.
(2)  OJ  C  235,  27.7.1998,  p.  60.
(3)  OJ  L  52,  22.2.1997,  p.  1.

(4)  OJ  L  181,  28.6.1989,  p.  47.

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whereas  account  is  to  be  taken  of  the  burden  on
respondents, 
or
individuals;

households 

business, 

they 

be 

Whereas,  in  accordance  with  Article  3(1)  of  Regulation
(EC)  No  322/97  before  submitting  its  draft  Decision,  the
Commission has submitted the guidelines for establishing
the  programme  to  the  Statistical  Programme  Committee,
the  European  Advisory  Committee  on  Statistical
Information  in  the  Economic  and  Social  Spheres  and  the
Committee  on  Monetary,  Financial  and  Balance  of
Payment Statistics;

Whereas  in  the  implementation  of  the  programme  the
principles  stated  in  Article  10  of  Regulation  (EC)  No
322/97,  in  particular  the  principles  of  impartiality  and
reliability, apply;

Whereas a reference to a statistical action in the annexed
framework  programme  does  not  affect  the  powers  of  the
budgetary  authority  as  defined  in  the  Treaty,

HAS  ADOPTED  THIS  DECISION:

Article  1

—  economic  and  monetary  union,

—  competitiveness,  growth  and  employment,

—  European  Union  enlargement,

and  shall  also  ensure  the  continuation  of  existing
statistical  support  for  decisions  in  current  policy  areas
and  the  additional  requirements  arising  from  new
Community  policy  initiatives.

Article  3

The programme shall be implemented in accordance with
the rules and principles laid down in Regulation (EC) No
322/97.

Article  4

third  year  of 
the  Commission 

the
During 
the 
programme 
an
intermediate report showing its stage of development and
present  it  to  the  Statistical  Programme  Committee.

implementation  of 
prepare 

shall 

At  the  end  of  the  period  covered  by  the  programme  the
Commission,  after  consulting  the  Statistical  Programme
Committee,  shall  present  an  appropriate  evaluation
report  on  the  implementation  of  the  programme,  taking
into  account  the  views  of  independent  experts.  That
report  is  to  be  completed  by  the  end  of  2003  and
subsequently  submitted  to  the  European  Parliament  and
the  Council.

The  Community  statistical  programme  for  the  period
from  1998  to  2002  (hereinafter  ‘the  programme’)  is
hereby  set  up.  The  programme  is  annexed  hereto.  It
defines the approaches, the main fields and the objectives
of  the  actions  envisaged  during  that  period.

Article  5

This  Decision  is  addressed  to  the  Member  States.

Article  2

Done  at  Brussels,  22  December  1998.

Taking account of the available resources of the national
authorities  and  the  Commission,  the  programme  shall
cover  the  principal  Community  policy  priorities  of:

For  the  Council

The  President

C.  EINEM

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ANNEX  I

COMMUNITY  STATISTICAL  PROGRAMME  (1998  to  2002):  APPROACHES

INTRODUCTION

(i)  The  need  for  statistical  information  for  EU  policy

Statistical  information  is  of  primary  importance  if  the  Institutions  of  the  EU,  and  indeed  the  public  at
large,  are  to  have  any  means  whatsoever  of  determining  on  a  factual  basis  both  the  need  for  European
policy initiatives as well as the progress such initiatives are making. Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the
European Communities) has as its main task the provision of such statistical information across a wide
range  of  social,  economic  and  environmental  factors  to  support  existing  and  future  policies  of  the  EU.

Structure  of  the  Annex

This Annex provides a summary of European statistical requirements viewed from the perspective of the
policy  needs  of  the  European  Union.  These  needs  are  broken  down  by  the  17  titles  identified  in  the
Treaty  on  European  Union,  treaties  establishing  the  European  Communities  and  subsequent  legislation.
An 18th  ‘title’ has been added to accommodate policy requirements from funding of the European Union
(VAT  and  GNP,  the  third  and  fourth  resource)  and  also  the  activities  concerning  enlargement.

For  each  of  these  policy  titles,  this  Annex  provides:

—  the principal orientation of the statistical work to be carried out within this five-year period for each

policy  area  and  the  specific  action  plans  envisaged,

—  the  specific  Treaty  provisions  and  main  legal  acts  which  provide  the  impetus  for  such  work,

—  the  presence  of  any  policy  documents  which  form  the  basis  of  the  statistical  requirements,

—  an  indication  of  the  foreseeable  regulatory  frameworks  related  to  statistics  for  the  policy  (to  be
finalised in the annual programme each year as envisaged in the Council Regulation on Community
statistics),

—  the areas of statistical work which support the policies of the title according to the CSS classification

for  work  themes,  set  out  in  Annex  II,

—  those themes for which insufficient resources exist to assure completion of the work in the requisite

timescale.

This  Annex  concentrates  on  the  policy  determinants  of  the  programme  of  work.

(ii) Programme strategies

Throughout  the  programme  of  work  the  strategic  guidelines  will  target:

(a)  users:  to  meet  the  requirements  of  Community  policies  and  to  adapt  statistical  information  to  the

needs  of  the  users;

(b) priorities: the requirement to clearly identify priorities such as to show the work which will and will

not  be  possible  given  the  resource  perspectives;

(c)  work planning: within the priority framework, to organise in an efficient way the activities necessary
to  achieve  the  production  targets;  major  projects,  whether  in  infrastructure  or  sectors,  will  be
developed  using  project  management  techniques;

(d) coordination:  to  assure  regular  communication  between  the  Commission  services  as  policy  users  of
Community  statistics  and  the  suppliers  within  a  developing  Community  statistical  system  upon
whom  the  provision  of  data  depends;

(e)  quality:  continually  to  seek  ways  to  improve  the  quality  (including  the  timeliness)  of  Community

statistics  and  achieve  more  uniform  standards  and  relevance;

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(f)  efficiency:  to  ensure  that  the  data  supply  process  is  as  cost  efficient  as  possible;

(g)  response  burden:  to  reduce  to  an  absolute  minimum  possible  the  burden  on  respondents;

(h) international standards: Community statistics will be made comparable with those for other areas of
the  world  by  taking  into  account  the  standards  approved  by  relevant  international  organisations.

These  aspects  will  be  subject  to  monitoring  during  the  course  of  the  programme  and  the  findings
included  in  the  programme  evaluation.

(iii)  Priority  management

The priorities for statistical work are managed according to three different categories of activity. These
priorities  are  reviewed  by  the  Commission,  after  consultation  with  the  Statistical  Programme
Committee,  on  an  annual  basis  so  that  they  take  into  account  the  coming  years  of  the  programme.
New actions and priorities should be based on a comprehensive view of statistical demands and taking
into  account  the  ability  of  Member  States  to  fulfil  them.  New  demands  should  be  weighed  against
existing  statistics.

(a)  Major  Community  policy  requirements

The  implementation  of  Community  policy  initiatives  will  give  rise  to  a  need  for  new  statistical
outputs.  The  policy  and  related  statistical  requirements  judged  to  be  of  the  highest  priority  are  as
follows:

—  economic  and  monetary  union,  stage  three:  the  statistical  requirements  of  the  stability  and

growth  pact,  short-term  indicators  of  demand,  output,  labour  market  activity  and  costs,

—  competitiveness,  growth  and  employment  and  the  ‘Pact  for  employment’:  the  structure  of  the

costs  and  outputs  of  business  enterprises,  structure  of  the  labour  market,

—  EU enlargement: significant demands for reliable and comparable statistical information for the

candidate  countries.

(b) Statistical  support  to  ongoing  policies

Statistical  activities  which  support  existing  Community  policy  areas,  such  as  agriculture,  economic
and  social  cohesion  and  external  trade,  will  be  maintained  subject  to  a  continuing  review  of
needs.

(c)  Other areas

Other  areas  of  statistical  data  collection  not  covered  above  are  nevertheless  required  for  policy
purposes.  Their  production  will  be  governed  by  available  resources.

For activities within this priority framework, the detailed range and extent of data collected will in
general  continue  to  be  elaborated  by  Eurostat  with  the  Member  States  in  the  context  of  the
Statistical Programme Committee (SPC) and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of
Payment Statistics (CMFB) according to the rules defined in the Council Regulation on Community
statistics  and 
in  conformity  with  agreed  principles  for  such  decisions  concerning  work
management.

(iv) Subsidiarity

The legislative context for this is covered by both the Council Decision setting up the SPC (89/382/EEC,
Euratom)  and  the  Council  Regulation  on  Community  statistics  (EC)  No  322/97  supported  by  the
Commission  Decision  on  the  role  of  Eurostat  as  regards  the  production  of  Community  statistics
(97/281/EC) to ensure a coordinated approach on statistical information across all Commission services.
Eurostat  can  only  carry  out  such  a  significant  task  in  liaison  with  the  statistical  authorities  in  the
Member States and has thus always based its activities on a fundamental principle of subsidiarity. This is
carried  out  across  a  wide  range  of  national  authorities  but  principally  with  the  national  statistical
institutes  of  the  EU  Member  States.

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(v)  The  balance  of  needs  and  resources

The  CSS  has  to  maintain  a  vigilant  watch  on  the  balance  between  the  needs  for  information  for
Community  policy  purposes  and  the  resources  required  at  both  EU,  national  and  regional  authority
levels to provide the information. The load on respondents is becoming an increasingly critical factor in
such evaluations. It is also important to maintain sufficient flexibility to allow the national authorities to
implement  the  most  cost-effective  solutions  to  satisfy  Community  statistical  information  needs.  The
statistical system has undergone significant development in the past few years. Recent investments need
consolidation  and  periodic  review  to  allow  the  release  of  finance  and  resource  for  higher  priority
tasks.

This  Annex  identifies  the  complete  set  of  statistical  requirements  necessary  to  support  Community
policies  and  in  the  context  of  overall  resources  management,  then  define  the  allocation  of  priorities
across  the  various  components  of  statistical  work  according  to  the  framework  described  above.

TITLE  I

FREE  MOVEMENT  OF  GOODS

Statistical implications

The management and monitoring of the internal market requires information on trade in goods between EU
Member States. Data on trade between Member States which have adopted the single currency and Member
States  which  have  not  are  also  needed  for  EMU  purposes.

Information,  whether  detailed  or  aggregated  is  necessary  in  connection  with  compilation  of  national
accounts and sectoral analyses, competition rules, the management and guidance of agriculture and fisheries,
regional  development,  energy  protection,  etc.

This  information  is  provided  by  the  Intrastat  system  introduced  in  1993.

With  the  completion  of  the  internal  market,  customs  documents  and  checks  can  no  longer  be  used  as  a
source of statistics on trade in goods between Member States. Consequently, Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91
provides for the production of these statistics by means of direct collection from intra-Community operators
(Intrastat).  However,  some  teething  troubles  have  been  encountered  with  Intrastat  (major  delays  in  the
publication  of  data,  a  high  non-response  rate  and  the  poor  quality  of  some  individual  returns)  which  have
led  to  the  Commission  proposing  a  strengthening  of  the  collection  system.

The unsatisfactory quality of the results provided by the system and the administrative burden, which many
SMEs regard as excessive, have prompted Eurostat to take various types of action (as evaluation of national
Intrastat  systems,  opinion  polls  among  suppliers  and  users  of  statistics,  a  seminar  on  the  future  of
Intrastat).

In  consequence,  the  work  on  corrections  and  simplifications  (the  SLIM  initiative)  will  continue,  making  it
possible  to  reduce  the  burden  on  enterprises  and  improve  the  operation  of  the  system.  Another  priority  is
the  constant  updating  of  the  methods  used  for  collecting,  processing  and  disseminating  data  (the  Edicom
project).

The  design  of  intratrade  statistics  will  be  severely  impacted  by  the  new  EMU  requirement  for  timely  and
highly accurate figures at the macro level and, in all likelihood, by the possible change to the VAT system.
Research  will  be  carried  out  on  a  redesign  of  the  system.

The  Intrastat  system  and  the  information  necessary  for  the  EU’s  common  commercial  policy  (Extrastat)
need  to  be  developed  and  managed  in  a  coherent  information  system  (Comext  —  see  Title  VII)  in
compliance  with  future  needs.

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Summary

During  the  programme  period  the  Commission  will  strive  to:

—  improve  the  operation  of  the  Intrastat  system  and  the  quality  of  its  results  in  terms  of  precision  and

availability,  in  particular  to  respond  to  the  requirement  to  produce  national  accounts,

—  reduce  its  burden  on  respondents  via  alternative  and  simplification  proposals,

—  analyse in depth the statistical implications of a possible change of the VAT system and the requirement
level,  and  propose  alternative  statistical

to  produce  timely,  accurate  figures  at  the  macro 
developments.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  I,  and  Title  V,  Chapter  3

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  3330/91  of  7  November  1991  on  the  statistics  relating  to  the  trading  of
goods  between  Member  States  (OJ  L  316,  16.11.1991,  p.  1)

amended  by:

Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3046/92 of 22 October 1992 laying down provisions implementing and
amending  Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  3330/91  on  the  statistics  relating  to  the  trading  of  goods  between
Member  States  (OJ  L  307,  23.10.1992,  p.  27)

Commission  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2256/92  of  31  July  1992  on  statistical  thresholds  for  the  statistics  on
trade  between  Member  States  (OJ  L  219,  4.8.1992,  p.  40)

rectified by:

Corrigendum to Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2256/92 of 31 July 1992 on statistical thresholds for the
statistics  on  trade  between  Member  States  (OJ  L  170,  13.7.1993,  p.  32)

Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3046/92 of 22 October 1992 laying down provisions implementing and
amending  Commission  Regulation  (EEC)  No  3330/91  on  the  statistics  relating  to  the  trading  of  goods
between  Member  States  (OJ  L  307,  23.10.1992,  p.  27)

amended  by:

Commission  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2385/96  of  16  December  1996  simplifying  the  concept  of  net  mass  (OJ
L  326,  17.12.1996,  p.  10)

Commission  Regulation  (EEC)  No  860/97  of  14  May  1997  with  regard  to  the  reporting  to  the  value  of
goods  (OJ  L  123,  15.5.1997,  p.  12)

Commission  Regulation  (EEC)  No  3590/92  of  11  December  1992  concerning  the  statistical  information
media  for  statistics  on  trade  between  Member  States  (OJ  L  364,  12.12.1992,  p.  32)

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1125/94  of  17  May  1994  on  the  deadlines  for  forwarding  statistics  on
trade  between  the  Member  States  (OJ  L  124,  18.5.1994,  p.  1)

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  2820/94  of  21  November  1994  fixing  a  threshold  value  for  individual
transactions  in  the  context  of  statistics  relating  to  trade  between  Member  States  (OJ  L  299,  22.11.1994,
p.  1)

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Council  Decision  96/715/EC  of  9  December  1996  on  inter-administration  telematic  networks  for  statistics
relating  to  the  trading  of  goods  between  Member  States  (Edicom)  (OJ  L  327,  18.12.1996,  p.  34)

Commission Decision 97/599/EC of 24 April 1997 approving 29 proposals for actions likely to benefit from
Community  financing  under  Council  Decision  96/715/EC  on  inter-administration  telematic  networks  for
statistics  relating  to  the  trading  of  goods  between  Member  States  (Edicom)  (not  published  on  the  Official
Journal)

Commission Decision 97/784/EC of 20 May 1997 approving 23 proposals for actions likely to benefit from
Community  financing  under  the  Council  Decision  96/75/EC  relating  to  inter-administration  telematic
networks  for  statistics  relating  to  the  trading  of  goods  between  Member  States  (Edicom)  (not  published  in
the  Official  Journal).

Policy  documents

Making  the  most  of  the  internal  market  —  The  strategic  programme  (COM(93)632).

The SLIM initiative — Report by the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the SLIM
pilot  project  (COM  (96)559).

A  common  system  of  VAT  —  A  programme  for  the  Single  Market  (COM(96)328).

Statistical legislation

A modified or a new basic regulation may be necessary to take into account the results of studies under way
on  alternative  collection  systems  (SLIM)  and  the  possible  development  in  the  VAT  domain.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  I: 

FREE  MOVEMENT  OF  GOODS

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

53 Trade  in  goods
57 Other  economic  statistics  (statistics  on  the

Other  important  contributory  themes

internal  market)

Industry
Energy  and  raw  materials

44
45
47 Distributive  trades
48 Transport
64 Crop  production
65 Animal  production
66 Agro-industry  statistics

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Delayed  financial  support  for  actions  in  the  Member  States  to  accelerate  the  implementation  of  the  new
regulations  on  short-term  indicators  and  structural  business  statistics  for:

—  industry  (theme  44),

—  distributive  trades  (theme  47).

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TITLE  II

AGRICULTURE  (INCLUDING  FISHERIES)

Statistical implications

Agriculture

The common agricultural policy (CAP) absorbs nearly half the Communities’ budget. The Commission has
thus  a  major  task  in  relation  to  the  CAP.  There  is  the  usual  role  of  policy  formulation,  monitoring,
evaluation and adaptation. The Commission makes regular proposals for Council legislation on agricultural
price and quantity parameters. It also has extensive delegated competence for current management. A large
set  of  agricultural  statistics  has  been  developed  to  support  these  different  activities.  It  covers  agricultural
structures,  agricultural  prices  and  incomes,  production  statistics  (crops,  livestock,  balance  sheets),
agro-industry  and  forestry.

The  main  effort  in  the  next  five  years  will  be,  as  in  the  current  programme,  to  operate  this  set  of  statistics
and to carry out essential maintenance, i. e. the adaptations required to keep in line with the current details
of the CAP, with technical developments (e. g. computing) and with the rest of official statistics. Particular
attention  will  continue  to  be  given  to  the  environmental  dimension,  by  developing  statistics  needed  for  the
analyses of the agricultural and environmental inter-linkages, inter alia, improvement of the statistics on use
of  fertilisers  and  pesticides,  on  organic  farming  and  actions  to  maintain  biodiversity  and  rural  habitats.

Further  attention  will  also  be  given  to  maintaining  quality,  in  particular  comparability,  in  the  face  of  the
economy  measures  in  this  sector  nationally  and  in  Eurostat.  A  prolongation  of  the  Council  Decision  on
improving  Community  agricultural  statistics  will  be  sought.  This  management  framework  provides  a
collective  and  transparent  approach  for  steadily  better  use  of  national  and  Community  resources  available
for  producing  agricultural  statistics  thanks  to  tested  adaptations  targeting  Community  needs.  The  statistics
produced  will  be  put  to  greater  use  (e. g.  modelling,  direct  access  by  Member  States  and  a  structured
extension  towards  generalised  land-use  statistics).

As well as the maintenance and improvement of the existing set of agricultural statistics, two tasks looking
to  the  future  will  be  undertaken.  Agricultural  statistics  and  the  way  to  develop  them  (including  evaluation
criteria)  will  be  defined  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  CAP  seven  to  ten  years  hence.  That  will  have  to  take
account  of  the  way  the  CAP  may  change  following  through  the  reforms  resulting  from  the  ‘Agenda  2000’
proposals in response to forces such as enlargement, international trade commitments, environment and the
future  of  the  rural  world.  A  detailed,  independent  review  of  the  present  system  is  envisaged  as  a
contribution  to  this  work.  The  second  task  is  to  continue  and  deepen  the  regular  flow  of  comparable  data
from official sources in central and eastern European countries. This data is already needed for membership
negotiations  and  appropriate  developments  facilitate  later  full  integration.

Fisheries

The three main elements of the common fisheries policy (CFP) are the management of fishery resources, the
management of the market for fishery products and the restructuring of the EU’s fishing industry within the
constraints of the resources. The legislation on catch, landings and aquaculture developed within Eurostat’s
statistical  programme  meet  the  Commission’s  current  statistical  requirements  for  the  first  two  elements  of
the  CFP.

Future  developments  within  the  CFP  will  concentrate  on  the  integration  of  the  various  components,  from
biology  to  resources,  through  improved  control  of  the  activities  of  fishing  vessels.  These  measures  are
unlikely  to  result  in  an  additional  demand  for  data  and  the  main  effort  in  the  coming  years  will  be  on
consolidating  and 
improving  data  flows  (completeness,  timeliness,  consistency,  comparability  and
accessibility)  on  the  basis  of  existing  legislation.

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The development of policies resulting from the social and economic consequences of limiting the activities of
fishing vessels and reducing the size of the EU fishing fleet will produce an increase in demand for data on
parameters  to  assess  the  social  and  economic  situation.  Eurostat  will  respond  in  an  appropriate  manner  to
such  developments  in  policy.

Summary

During  the  programme  period  the  Commission  will  strive  to:

—  apply  the  TAPAS  scheme  for  progressive  improvements  to  the  existing  set  of  agricultural  statistics,
mainly  as  far  as  quality,  comparability,  efficiency  savings,  simplification  and  timeliness  is  concerned,

—  plan  the  development  of  agricultural  statistics  with  the  aim  to  meet  the  future  needs  of  the  CAP,

—  assist  in  the  development  of  comparable  data  for  the  negotiations  on  the  enlargement  of  the  Union,

—  consolidate  and  improve  the  quality  of  the  fishery  statistics.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  II

Agriculture

Council  Directive  97/77/EC  of  16  December  1997,  amending  Directives  93/23/EEC,  93/24/EEC  and
93/25/EEC  on  the  statistical  surveys  to  be  carried  out  on  pig,  bovine  animal  and  sheep  and  goat
production

Council  Decision  96/411/EC  of  25  June  1996  on  improving  Community  agricultural  statistics  (OJ  L  162,
1.7.1996).  Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  571/88  of  29  February  1988  on  the  organisation  of  Community
surveys  on  the  structure  of  agricultural  holdings  between  1988  and  1997  (OJ  L  56,  2.3.1998)  as  amended
by  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  2467/96  of  17  December  1996  (OJ  L  335,  24.12.1996)

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  3205/93  of  16  November  1993  amending  Regulation  (EEC)  No  357/79  on
statistical  surveys  of  areas  under  vines  (OJ  L  289,  24.11.1993)

Council  Directive  76/625/EEC  concerning  the  statistical  surveys  to  be  carried  out  by  the  Member  States  in
order  to  determine  the  production  potential  of  certain  species  of  fruit  trees  (OJ  L  218,  11.8.1976)

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  3453/80  of  22  December  1980  amending  Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No
154/75 on the establishment  of a register  of olive cultivation in the Member States producing olive oil (OJ
L  360,  31.12.1980)

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2392/86 of 24 July 1986 establishment a Community vineyard register (OJ L
208,  31.7.1986)

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  400/94  of  21  February  1994  extending  Regulation  (EEC)  No  1615/89
establishing  a  European  forestry  information  and  communication  system  (EFICS)  (OJ  L  54,  25.2.1994)

Commission  Decision  96/393/EC  of  13  June  1996  amending  Decision  No  377/85/EEC  on  Community
typology  for  agricultural  holdings  (OJ  L  163,  2.7.1996)

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Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  837/90  of  26  March  1990  concerning  statistical  information  to  be  supplied
by  the  Member  States  on  cereals  production  (OJ  L  88,  3.4.1990)

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  959/93  of  5  April  1993  concerning  statistical  information  to  be  supplied  by
Member  States  on  crop  products  other  than  cereals  (OJ  L  98,  24.4.1993)

Council  Decision  94/753/EC  of  14  November  1994  on  the  continued  application  of  remote  sensing  to
agricultural  statistics  during  the  period  1994  to  1998  (OJ  L  299,  22.11.1994)

Council  Directive  93/23/EEC  of  1  June  1993  on  the  statistical  surveys  to  be  carried  out  on  pig  production
(OJ  L 149,  21.6.1993)

Council  Directive  93/24/EEC  of  1  June  1993  on  the  statistical  surveys  to  be  carried  out  on  bovine  animal
production  (OJ  L  149,  21.6.1993)

Council Directive 93/25/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the statistical surveys to be carried out on sheep and goat
stocks  (OJ  L  149,  21.6.1993)

Council  Directive  96/16/EC  of  19  March  1996  on  statistical  surveys  of  milk  and  milk  products  (OJ  L  78,
28.3.1996)

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2771/75  of  29  October  1975  on  the  common  organisation  of  the  market  in
eggs  (OJ  L  282,  1.11.1975)

Fisheries

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  1382/91  of  21  May  1991  on  the  submission  of  data  on  the  landings  of
fishery  in  Member  States  (OJ  L  133,  28.5.1991)

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3880/91 of 17 December 1991 on the submission of nominal catch statistics
by  Member  States  fishing  in  the  north-east  Atlantic  (OJ  L  365,  31.12.1991)

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2018/93 of 30 June 1993 on the submission of catch and activity statistics by
Member  States  fishing  in  the  north-west  Atlantic  (OJ  L  186,  28.7.1993)

Council Regulation (EC) No 2597/95 of 23 October 1995 on the submission of nominal catch statistics by
Member  States  fishing  in  certain  areas  other  than  those  of  the  north  Atlantic  (OJ  L  270,  13.11.1995)

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  788/96  on  aquaculture  production  statistics  in  the  Member  States  (OJ  L  108,
1.5.1996).

Policy  documents

Strategy  document:  ‘Study  on  alternative  strategies  for  the  development  of  relations  in  the  field  of
agriculture between the EU and the associated countries with a view to future accession of these countries’
(CSE  (95)  607,  December  1995)

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

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Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  II:  AGRICULTURE  (INCLUDING

FISHERIES)

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

Land  use  and  countryside

61
62 Agricultural  structures
63 Agricultural  incomes  and  prices
64 Crop  production
65 Animal  production
66 Agro-industry  statistics
67 Reforming  agricultural  statistics
68
69
53 Trade  in  goods

Forestry  statistics
Fisheries  statistics

Other  important  contributory  themes

72 Regional  and  geographical  information

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Agriculture  structure  survey:  delayed  analysis  of  survey  (theme  62).

TITLE  III

FREE  MOVEMENT  OF  PERSONS,  SERVICES  AND  CAPITAL

Statistical implications

Persons

To ensure proper planning for this policy of the European Union, it is necessary to have reliable and timely
information  on  all  aspects  of  movements  of  citizens  both  within  the  European  Union  and  between  the
European  Union  and  other  countries  and  to  determine  the  actual  population  of  the  European  Union  from
time  to  time  using  administrative  registers  and  censuses  combined  with  projections  of  future  trends.

The  1998-2002  period  will  be  marked  by  consolidation  and  exploitation  of  data  available  from  work
carried out in the period 1993-1997. Apart from Census 2000, the results of which will most likely not be
available  before  the  end  of  the  planning  period  covered  by  this  programme,  no  further  data  collection  is
envisaged.  Statistical  work  will  be  extended  to  cover  other  geographical  areas,  notably  in  liaison  with
programmes  on  central  and  eastern  European  countries  and  Mediterranean  countries.

Summary

Work  will  primarily  focus  on:

—  harmonisation  of  concepts  used  in  the  area  of  migration,  and  as  used  in  censuses,  social  surveys  and

administrative registers,

—  analysis  of  available  data.

Services  and  capital

Existing balance of payment statistics are thought to be adequate for monitoring the provisions concerning
the free movement of services and capital in the internal market. At present, all the Member States consider

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the  continued  existence  of  a  national  balance  of  payments  to  be  vital,  even  after  the  launch  of  the  third
phase  of  economic  and  monetary  union.  The  development  of  a  new  system  for  measuring  trade  remains
however  possible  but  will  not  be  launched  before  the  end  of  the  present  planning  period  in  2002.

Annual  and  short-term  information  on  the  services  sectors  is  essential  for  the  management  and  monitoring
of  the  internal  market.  In  addition,  this  same  information  is  also  needed,  for  assessing  the  impact  of
international negotiations on national economies, for improving the quality of quarterly and annual national
accounts  statistics,  for  analysing  the  competitiveness  of  service  enterprises  and  the  impact  on  user
productivity  or  monitoring  developments  in  employment,  and  for  defining  the  role  of  the  tertiary  sector  in
regional development — particularly the activities of business carrying out transport, financial and business
services.

The  establishment  of  a  system  of  comparable  data  on  the  audiovisual  industry  and  markets,  as  well  as  on
communications  infrastructures  and  services,  is  needed  for  the  assessment  of  new  policies,  implementation
and  monitoring  of  the  internal  market  and  competition  in  these  fields.

Analysis  of  the  economic  circumstances  and  social  trends  in  tourism  requires  a  consolidation  of  the
statistical  system  in  terms  of  information  needed  for  forward  planning  so  that  the  various  operators  in
European  tourism  can  devise  genuine  strategic  options.

The work during the next five years will thus concentrate on implementing the new Council Regulations on
structural  business  surveys  and  on  short-term  statistics  in  the  services  sector,  developing  a  new  set  of
statistics to complete the existing information in the communications sector and audiovisual services, pursue
the  work  on  tourism  statistics  and  on  the  development  of  business  registers  for  statistical  purposes.

Summary

During  the  programme  period:

—  pilot  surveys  will  be  launched  and  the  structural  business  survey  will  be  implemented  on  a  progressive

basis,

—  pilot  studies  will  be  launched  and  the  short-term  statistics  Regulation  will  be  implemented  with  a

particular  focus  on  the  service  sector,

—  studies  will  be  realised  to  determine  the  needs  for  statistics  in  the  field  of  communications  and  of  the

information  society,

—  users requirement analyses, sources assessment, data collection and testing of methods by pilot studies in

the  audiovisual  sectors  will  be  undertaken,

—  existing  tourism  statistics  will  be  developed  further  by  implementing  the  Directive  adopted  in  1995,

—  the  Regulations  on  business  statistics,  short-term  statistics  and  business  registers  for  statistical  purposes

will  be  implemented.

Legal references

Treaty  on  European  Union,  Title  VI

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  311/76  of  9  February  1976  on  the  compilation  of  statistics  on  foreign
workers

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics
(OJ  L  14,  17.1.1997),  as  amended  by  Regulation  (EC,  Euratom)  No  410/98

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1165/98  of  19  May  1998  concerning  short-term  statistics

Council  Decision  97/15/EC  of  9  December  1996  on  a  third  multiannual  programme  for  small  and
medium-sized  enterprises  (SMEs)  in  the  European  Union  (1997  to  2000).  (OJ  L  6,  10.1.1997)

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Council  Directive  95/57/EC  of  23  November  1995  concerning  the  collection  of  information  in  the  field  of
tourism

Statistical  registers:  Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2186/93  on  Community  coordination  in  drawing  up
business  registers  for  statistical  purposes

Policy  documents

White  Paper  ‘Growth,  competitiveness,  employment:  The  challenges  and  ways  forward  into  the  21st
century’

Commission  Recommendation  96/280/EC  concerning  the  definition  of  small  and  medium-sized  enterprises

White  Paper  on  European  social  policy  (1994)

Green  Paper  on  commerce  (COM(96)  530)

Green  Paper  on  financial  services  and  consumers

Green  Paper  ‘People  first:  Living  and  working  in  the  information  society’

Europe  and  the  global  Information  society.  Recommendations  to  the  European  Council  (‘Bangemann
report’),  1994

Proceedings  of  the  G7  Information  Society  Conference,  1995

Council  Decision  92/421/EEC  on  a  Community  action  plan  to  assist  tourism  (OJ  L  231,  13.8.1992)

Proposal for a Council Decision on a first multiannual programme to assist European tourism (1997-2000)
‘Philoxenia’  —  COM(96)  168  and  COM(96)  635

Social economy: Proposal for a Council Decision relating to a multiannual programme (1994-1996) of work
for  cooperatives,  mutual  societies,  associations  and  foundations  in  the  Community  (COM(93)650)

Proposal  for  a  Council  Decision  concerning  actions  aimed  at  establishing  an  infrastructure  for  statistical
information  concerning  the  audiovisual  and  related  sectors.

Statistical legislation

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1165/98  of  19  May  1998  concerning  short-term  statistics.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  III: 

FREE  MOVEMENT  OF  PERSONS,
SERVICES  AND  CAPITAL

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

Population

31
47 Distributive  trades
48 Transport
49 Communication
50 Tourism
Services
51
Balance  of  payments
54

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Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Delayed  financial  support  for  actions  in  the  Member  States  to  accelerate  the  implementation  of  the  new
regulations  on  short-term  indicators  and  structural  business  statistics  for:

—  services  (theme  51),

—  distributive  trades  (theme  47).

TITLE  IV

TRANSPORT

Statistical implications

Implementing  the  common  transport  policy  requires  comprehensive,  precise  and  rapid  information  on  the
functioning of the European transport system so that the policies and initiatives pursued can be assessed and
the  quality  of  transport  systems  improved  through  the  development  of  integrated  and  competitive
systems.

Additions  will  be  made  to  the  current  system  of  information  on  transport  with  a  view  to  providing  users
with  sufficiently  detailed  and  timely  statistics.

There are plans to use new methodological approaches in order to incorporate the concept of intermodality
(and  its  links  with  the  concept  of  inter-operability  of  trans-European  transport  networks)  in  the  collection
of  transport  statistics.  With  the  help  of  new  technologies,  in  particular  through  more  widespread  use  of
electronic  data  interchange  techniques,  it  should  be  possible  to  collect  the  intermodal  data  needed  and  to
alleviate  the  burden  on  business  at  the  same  time.

The impact of transport liberalisation in Europe on statistical sources will require a change in the methods
used  and  a  rationalisation  of  data  collection  activities  within  the  Member  States,  with  cost/efficiency
considerations  to  the  fore.

The  development  of  trans-European  transport  networks  (TENs)  means  that  the  work  programme  for  this
area  must  fulfil  the  requirements  of  precise  and  comparable  information,  improved  collection  methods  and
new concepts for analysing and presenting the data (for example geographic information systems). Thus the
information  needed  for  assessing  and  further  developing  the  trans-European  networks  should  be  collected
with  a  view  to  increasing  the  competitiveness  of  European  industry.

As  part  of  the  common  transport  policy  and  with  a  view  to  developing  sustainable  mobility,  it  will  be
necessary to set up a statistical system capable of measuring the impact of transport on the environment and
on  safety.

Summary

It  is  planned  to  carry  out  the  following  work:

—  further  implementation  of  the  legal  bases  recently  adopted  by  the  Council  in  the  field  of  transport

statistics,

—  adaptation  of  the  legal  bases  currently  in  force  as  a  result  of  the  liberalisation  of  various  modes  of

transport  in  Europe,

—  development  of  a  statistical  system  on  intermodal  transport  based  on  existing  data  available  in  the

Member  States.

Legal references

Treaty establishing the European Community. Council Directive 78/546/EEC of 12 June 1978 on statistical
returns  in  respect  of  carriage  of  goods  by  road,  as  part  of  regional  statistics

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Council Directive 80/1119/EEC of 17 November 1980 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods
by  inland  waterways

Council  Directive  89/462/EEC  of  18  July  1989,  amending  Directive  78/546/EEC  on  statistical  returns  in
respect  of  carriage  goods  by  road,  as  part  of  regional  statistics

Council  Directive  95/64/EC  of  8  December  1995  on  statistical  returns  in  respect  of  carriage  of  goods  and
passengers  by  sea

Draft  Council  Regulation  (EC)  of  14  September  1995  on  statistical  returns  in  respect  of  carriage  of
passengers,  freight  and  mail  by  air

Council Directive 92/106/EEC of 7 December 1992 on the establishment of common rules for certain types
of  combined  transport  of  goods  between  Member  States

Council  Decision  93/704/EEC  of  30  November  1993  on  the  creation  of  a  Community  database  on  road
accidents

Proposed  Council  Regulation  on  statistical  returns  in  respect  of  carriage  of  goods  by  road.

Policy  documents

White  Paper  on  the  future  development  of  the  common  transport  policy:  a  global  approach  to  the
construction  of  a  Community  framework  for  sustainable  mobility  (COM(92)  494)

Commission  communication:  ‘The  common  transport  policy  action  programme  1995-2000’  (COM(95)
302)

Commission  communication  to  the  Council  and  the  European  Parliament  ‘Connecting  the  Union  transport
infrastructure network to its neighbours — Towards a cooperative pan-European transport network policy’
(COM(97)  172  final)

Decision  No  1692/96/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  23  July  1996  on  Community
guidelines  for  the  development  of  the  trans-European  transport  network  (OJ  L  228,  9.9.1996)

Report  from  the  Commission  on  progress  with  the  project  and  its  future  prospects  —  CARE:  Community
database  on  road  traffic  accidents  —  Council  Decision  93/704/EEC  of  30  November  1993  (COM(97)  238
final)

Commission communication to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee
and the Committee of the Regions — Intermodality and intermodal freight transport in the European Union
—  A  system’s  approach  to  freight  transport  —  Strategies  and  actions  to  enhance  efficiency,  services  and
sustainability  (COM(97)  243  final).

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  completion  of  ongoing  work  (road  transport  and  air  transport  statistics),  no  major  new
statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged

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Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  IV:  TRANSPORT

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

48 Transport

Other  important  contributory  themes

49 Communication
50 Tourism
71

Environment

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

None.

TITLE  V

COMMON  RULES  ON  COMPETITION,  TAXATION  AND  APPROXIMATION  OF  LAWS

Statistical implications

Only if harmonised, integrated and sufficiently detailed information is available rapidly will the Community
institutions be able to prevent unfair competition, businesses be able to assess their level of competitiveness
and  economic  analysts  be  able  to  provide  vital  data  for  policy-making.

In  the  trade  between  Member  States,  value-added  tax  will  for  the  time  being  continue  to  be  levied  in  the
country  of  destination.  Under  a  definitive  value-added  tax  system  in  the  Community,  as  envisaged  by  the
Commission, intra-Community supplies would no longer be subject to the tax rate applying in the country
of destination but to that in force in the country of origin. Such a common value-added tax system, which
may  be  introduced  at  some  point  in  the  future,  would  in  the  Commission’s  view  require  a  mechanism  for
allocating  some  point  in  the  future,  would  in  the  Commission’s  view  require  a  mechanism  for  allocating
receipts  between  Member  States,  based  on  information  from  their  national  accounts.  Should  the  Council
decide  in  principle  to  introduce  such  a  common  value-added  tax  system,  a  study  would  be  required  of  the
suitability  of  the  national  accounts  for  this  purpose,  taking  into  consideration  the  higher  level  of  reliability
required,  the  loss  or  degradation  of  information  due  to  the  change  in  the  VAT  system  and  the  extra
response  burden  which  the  replacement  surveys  will  place  on  businesses.  The  implementation  of  any
consequent  improvement  to  the  national  accounts  would  impose  an  enormous  burden  on  the  producers  of
the  national  accounts  in  terms  of  human  resources  and  high  costs.

Special  attention  will  be  paid  to  ensuring  that  the  work  resulting  from  the  programme  is  adequately
coordinated  as  regards  the  use  made  of  classification  systems  (including  the  units  surveyed),  definitions  of
variables  and  concepts  in  general.  Published  statistics  will  reflect  this  coordinated  approach,  making  tables
more  comparable  as  between  different  topic  areas.

Summary

Work  will  mainly  concentrate  on:

—  improving  the  quality  and  the  comparability  of  macroeconomic  data  from  the  national  accounts,

—  improving  the  approximation  of  laws  through  better  statistical  coordination.

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Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  V

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1165/98  of  19  May  1998  concerning  short-term  statistics.

Policy  documents

Commission  Recommendation  96/280/EC  concerning 
enterprises.

the  definition  of  small  and  medium-sized

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  V:  COMMON  RULES  ON

COMPETITION,  TAXATION  AND
APPROXIMATION  OF  LAWS

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

40 Annual  economic  accounts
41
Industry
53 Trade  in  goods

Other  important  contributory  themes

Energy  and  raw  materials

45
47 Distributive  trades
48 Transport
49 Communication
51
63 Agricultural  incomes  and  prices
64 Crop  production
65 Animal  production
66 Agro-industry  statistics

Services

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Delayed  financial  support  for  actions  in  the  Member  States  to  accelerate  the  implementation  of  the  new
Regulations  on  short-term  indicators  and  structural  business  statistics  for:

—  industry  (theme  44),

—  services  (theme  51),

—  distributive  trades  (theme  47).

L  42/18

EN

Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

16.2.1999

TITLE  VI

ECONOMIC  AND  MONETARY  POLICY

Statistical implications

The  implementation  of  economic  and  monetary  union  requires  very  close  statistical  monitoring  to  support
macroeconomic  policy  coordination  and  the  monetary  policy  functions  of  the  European  System  of  Central
Banks.  The  Stability  and  Growth  Pact  presents  new  statistical  requirements.  Meanwhile  measuring  the
extent  of  economic  convergence  achieved  by  Member  States  remains  important.

Much  of  the  task  will  be  to  continue  and  supplement  the  efforts  made  to  harmonise  statistics  on  the
convergence  criteria.  The  goal  of  maintaining  price  stability  (Article  105)  means  that,  pursuant  to  Council
Regulation (EC) No 2494/95, the quality and comparability of the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices
(HICPs)  have  to  be  enhanced  and  the  Monetary  Union  Index  of  consumer  Prices  (MUICP)  will  have  to  be
developed.

Monitoring of the budgetary situation and of the stock of government debt (Article 104C and the Stability
and  Growth  Pact  agreed  upon  in  Dublin)  will  be  carried  out  on  the  basis  of  the  accounts  of  general
government  drawn  up  using  the  ESA  95  methodology  approved  by  the  Council  (Regulation  (EC)  No
2223/96) in June 1996. Harmonisation and comparability will be kept under review in order to provide the
institutional  decision-makers  with  high  quality  and  comparable  statistical  instruments  so  as  not  to  create
any  distortions  in  the  judgements  made  of  the  budgetary  situation  in  each  Member  State.

Moreover, monitoring of the economic situation in the Member States as provided for in the Treaty (Article
103) has shown the need to continue efforts to harmonise national accounts and to produce all of the tables
provided  for  in  the  Council  Decision  on  ESA  95.  These  data  are  increasingly  used  as  a  basis  for  policy
decisions, hence the obligation incumbent upon the Commission to monitor with the utmost stringency the
implementation  of  ESA  95  by  the  Member  States.  In  addition,  the  priority  given  to  employment,  which  is
one of the listed objectives for EMU according to Article 2 of the Treaty and explicitly linked to Article 103
through  Article  102A,  makes  necessary  further  efforts  in  improving  labour  statistics.

The drawing up of quarterly accounts at current and constant prices on very comparable bases is necessary
for  the  purpose  of  monitoring  the  Stability  and  Growth  Pact.  Aggregate  national  accounts  covering  the
Member  States  which  have  adopted  the  single  currency  will  be  prepared.

Work on drawing up the principal aggregates of the accounts in terms of purchasing power parities will be
continued.  Therefore,  it  will  be  necessary  to  carry  out  major  methodological  revision  work  namely  the
revision of the methodology for purchasing power parities to make the results more reliable for comparative
analyses.

In  order  to  provide  statistics  with  the  necessary  breadth,  comparability,  timeliness  and  frequency  to
coordinate  macroeconomic  policy  and  support  the  monetary  policy  functions  of  the  European  System  of
Central Banks, work will be pursued on short-term indicators of demand, output, the labour market, prices
and  costs.  This  work  will  complement  further  development  of  monetary  and  financial  indicators.

Summary

During  the  next  five  years,  the  main  efforts  will  be  made  to:

—  pursue  the  development  and  production  of  statistics  for  the  conduct  of  macroeconomic  policy
coordination  and  of  monetary  policy,  for  the  Stability  and  Growth  Pact,  and  the  continued  assessment
of  economic  convergence,

—  implement  the  Regulation  on  the  European  system  of  accounts  (ESA  95).

16.2.1999

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L  42/19

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Article  2

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  2494/95  of  23  October  1995  concerning  harmonised  indices  of  consumer
prices

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  2223/96  of  25  June  1996  on  the  European  system  of  national  and  regional
accounts  in  the  Community  as  amended  by  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  448/98  of  16  February  1998,
completing  and  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  2223/96  with  respect  to  the  allocation  of  financial
intermediation  services  indirectly  measured  (FISIM)  within  the  European  system  of  national  and  regional
accounts  (ESA)

Resolution  of  the  European  Council  on  the  Stability  and  Growth  Pact  —  Amsterdam,  17  June  1997

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1467/97  of  7  July  1997  on  speeding  up  and  clarifying  the  implementation  of
the  excessive  deficit  procedure

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1466/97  of  7  July  1997  on  the  strengthening  of  the  surveillance  of  budgetary
positions  and  the  surveillance  and  coordination  of  economic  policies.

Policy  documents

With  Paper  on  ‘Growth,  competitiveness,  employment’,  Chapter  B1,  European  Commission  1993

Broad  Economic  Policy  Guidelines,  yearly,  issued  by  the  Council

Annual  Economic  Report,  yearly,  European  Commission

Joint  Employment  Report,  yearly,  Council  and  European  Commission

Green  Paper  on  the  practical  arrangements  for  the  introduction  of  the  single  currency

Decisions  of  the  European  Councils  in  Madrid,  Florence  and  Dublin.

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  VI: 

ECONOMIC  AND  MONETARY
POLICY

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

Other  important  contributory  themes

40 Annual  economic  accounts
41 Quarterly  and  environment  accounts
42
Financial  accounts
52 Money  and  finance
54 Trade  in  services  and  balance  of  payments
55

Prices

Labour  market
Industry  (short-term  indicators)

32
44
53 Trade  in  goods

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

None.

L  42/20

EN

Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

16.2.1999

TITLE  VII

COMMON  COMMERCIAL  POLICY

Statistical implications

Article  113  of  the  EC  Treaty  sets  out  the  procedures  in  force  for  authorising  the  Commission  to  open
negotiations  in  the  field  of  commercial  policy.  Multilateral  negotiations  will  be  conducted  according  to  the
GATT  Agreements  and  under  the  WTO.  Bilateral  negotiations  complete  the  picture.

The  Community’s  statistical  resources  need  to  be  of  the  same  standard  as  those  of  its  partners,  or  better.
The  Community  needs  full,  swift  and  detailed  information  on  trade  in  goods  with  third  countries
(Extrastat).  The  existing  information  system  will  be  maintained  at  a  high  level  of  efficiency.

Negotiations on EU enlargement may lead to appropriate adjustments in trade statistics. Adhesion countries
should  be  supported  in  their  efforts  to  adapt  to  the  statistical  acquis.

Although the SLIM initiative on trade in goods between EU Member States (see Title I) is currently focused
on  internal  trade  between Member States, it is likely to lead to requests for some similar simplifications of
the statistical system for external trade. Simplifications of customs documents and checks will also affect the
statistical system.

Studies  are  planned  on  the  impact  of  globalisation  on  trade  statistics.  A  survey  of  businesses  will  be
followed  by  appropriate  action,  probably  around  year  2000.

Furthermore,  in  connection  with  the  General  Agreement  on  Trade  in  Services  (GATS),  the  statistics  on
international trade in services, foreign direct investment and foreign affiliates’ trade will be developed. This
constitutes  a  high  priority  for  the  coming  years.

Studies will be carried out to develop statistics measuring the impact of globalisation of the economy. These
studies will be carried out in close cooperation with the statistical institutes of the Member States and other
international organisations. Special attention will be given to the effects of methodology, collection systems,
etc.,  on  other  areas  of  statistics.

Summary

The  main  activities  will  concentrate  on:

—  the  implementation  of  the  revised  international  concepts  and  definitions  for  trade  statistics,  including

those  necessary  to  implement  ESA  95,

—  the  Comext  system  regrouping  data  on  Intrastat  and  Extrastat  will  be  improved  to  make  more

user-friendly,  and  extended  to  integrate  trade  volume  and  unit  value  indices,

—  studies to increase comparability of data necessary to support multilateral and bilateral negotiations will

be  done  with  third  countries,

—  the  development  of  indicators  for  measuring  the  impact  of  the  globalisation  of  the  economy  on

businesses,  labour  markets  and  trade  statistics.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three,  Title  VI

Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 of 22 May 1995 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by
the  Community  and  its  Member  States  with  non-member  countries  (OJ  L  118,  25.5.1995,  p.  10)

16.2.1999

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L  42/21

amended  by:

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  476/97  of  13  March  1997  with  regard  to  the  statistical  territory  (OJ  L  75,
15.3.1997,  p.  1)

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  40/96  of  7  May  1996  laying  down  certain  provisions  for  the
implementation  of  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1172/95  as  regards  statistics  on  external  trade  (OJ  L  114,
8.5.1996,  p.  7)

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical classification and on the
Common  Customs  Tariff  (OJ  L  256,  7.9.1987,  p.  1)

amended  by:

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3528/89 of 23 November 1989 amending Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on
the  tariff  and  statistical  classification  and  on  the  Common  Customs  Tariff  (OJ  L  347,  28.11.1989,
p.  1)

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code —
Article  252  (OJ  L  302,  19.10.1992,  p.  50)

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1734/96  of  9  September  1996  amending  Annex  I  to  Council  Regulation
(EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical classification and on the Common Customs Tariff (OJ L 238,
19.9.1996,  p.  1)

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  2317/97  of  21  November  1997  on  the  country  classification  for  the
external  trade  statistics  of  the  Community  and  statistics  of  trade  between  Member  States  (OJ  L  321,
22.11.1997,  p.  19).

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  VII: 

COMMON  COMMERCIAL
POLICY

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

53 Trade  in  goods
54 Trade  in  services  and  balance  of  payments
57 Other  economic  statistics  (globalisation)

Other  important  contributory  themes

19 Technical  assistance  to  countries  in

transition
Preparation  of  enlargement

20
21 Technical  cooperation  with  third  countries
42
Financial  accounts
52 Money  and  finance

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

International  trade  in  services  statistics  and  foreign  investment  statistics  (theme  54).

Technical  cooperation  with  third  countries  (theme  21).

L  42/22

EN

Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

16.2.1999

TITLE  VIII

SOCIAL  POLICY,  EDUCATION,  VOCATIONAL  TRAINING  AND  YOUTH

Statistical implications

Statistics  will  be  required  for  analysis  of  long-term  unemployment  and  studies  of  transition  processes.
Employment and labour market data need to be provided to meet the decisions of the Amsterdam European
Council  and  the  monitoring  of  the  employment  guidelines  decided  at  the  Luxembourg  extraordinary
European  Council  on  employment.  In  addition  to  the  tools  being  put  into  place  to  tackle  the  problems
caused  by  the  absence  of  both  short-term  statistics  on  the  labour  market  and  comparable  data  on
unemployment  and  salaries,  appropriate  data  on  measuring  employment  performance  in  the  context  of  the
guidelines  will  also  be  required.  Work  will  concentrate  on  further  harmonisation  of  unemployment  rates,
estimation  of  underemployment  and  development  of  a  continuous  labour  force  survey  in  most  of  the  EEA
Member  States  and  the  pre-accession  countries.  In  addition,  a  permanent  system  of  statistics  on  earnings
and labour costs will be adopted, including short-term indicators of labour costs based on data available in
Member  States.  Existing  statistics  will  be  examined,  and  if  necessary  developed  and  combined,  to  produce
common  indicators  of  employment  performance  as  defined  in  the  employment  guidelines.

The  implementation  of  2  five-year  Community  action  programmes  (1995-1999)  one  on  education  and  the
other  on  vocational  training,  together  with  a  Council  resolution  focusing  explicitly  on  the  promotion  of
education  and  training  statistics  have  led  to  a  considerable  increase  in  the  demand  for  internationally
comparable statistics on education and training. For the period 1998-2002, statistical developments in these
areas  will  go  hand  in  hand  with:  (a)  the  guidelines  of  the  Luxembourg  job  summit;  (b)  the  objectives  of
structural funds; and (c) the objectives of the new generation of education, training and youth programmes.
In this context, it is already known that statistics on (i) transition from school to work, (ii) length of school
education,  (iii)  lifelong  learning  and  (iv)  linking  employability  and  vocational  training  would  be  strongly
demanded.

To ensure proper planning of numerous European Union policies, it is necessary to have reliable and timely
information  on  demography  and  migration.  The  period  1998-2002  will  be  marked  by  consolidations  and
analysis of work carried out in the 1993-1997 period. There will be no new data collected except by way of
censuses.

The  increasing  awareness  of  the  Community’s  role  in  the  area  of  social  policy  requires  harmonised  and
internationally  comparable  data  on  living  conditions.  Articulated  indicators  of  income  levels,  living
conditions  and  social  exclusion  will  be  developed.

The  time-use  survey  will  provide  additional  non-monetary  information  on  living  conditions  and  enable  the
Commission  to  present  statistics  on  the  full  contribution  (namely  paid  and  unpaid  work)  of  men  and
women  to  the  economy.

The  Commission  is  required  to  ensure  that  quality  of  life  is  maintained  through  adequate  social  protection
systems,  which  requires  an 
internationally  comparative  statistical  data  base  on  social  protection
expenditures and receipts. Esspros data collection will continue with production of associated publications.
Studies  of  active  labour  market  policies  will  be  undertaken  in  such  areas  as  measures  to  promote
employment,  influence  of  fiscal  systems  on  social  protection,  etc.

In line with the Council resolution on the harmonisation of statistics on accidents at work and occupational
diseases,  the  proposed  work  programme  on  safety,  hygiene  and  health  at  work  (1996-2000)  foresees  the
continuation of projects on comparable statistics on health and safety at work. Consistent series of data will
be  established  to  provide  the  means  for  the  monitoring  of  health  and  safety  at  work  and  the  efficiency  of
regulation  in  this  field.

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L  42/23

The  structuring/integration  of  household  surveys  and  similarly  between  surveys  and  registers,  will  be
pursued  with  a  view  to  rationalising  resources  and  improving  comparability  of  output.

Summary

Work  during  the  next  planning  period  will  mainly  concentrate  on:

—  the  consolidation  and  analysis  of  work  on  population  and  migration,

—  further  development  of  harmonised  statistics  in  the  field  of  unemployment  and  labour  market  (e. g.

labour  force  survey,  quarterly  labour  cost  statistics)

—  meeting  new  and  existing  data  requirements  in  the  area  of  continuing  vocational  training,

—  the  continuation  of  statistical  projects  on  health  and  safety,

—  the  improvement  of  statistics  on  income  distribution,  living  conditions  and  social  exclusion,

—  coordination  of  work  on  a  time-use  survey,

—  the  consolidation  of  social  protection  statistics.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three,  Title  I,  Title  II,  Title  V,  Title  VIII,  Title  XIV

Treaty  on  European  Union,  Title  VI

Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 of 9 March 1998 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey
in  the  Community

Labour  cost  survey  (Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  23/97  of  20  December  1996)

Structure  of  earnings  survey  (Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  2744/95)

Council  resolution  of  5  December  1994  on  the  promotion  of  education  and  training  statistics  in  the
European  Union  (OJ  C  374,  30.12.1994)

Council  regulation  (EEC)  No  311/76  of  9  February  1976  on  the  compilation  of  statistics  on  foreign
workers

Council  resolution  of  27  March  1995  (95/C  168/01)  on  harmonising  statistics  on  accidents  in  the
workplace,  data  on  occupational  diseases.

Policy  documents

White Paper on ‘Growth, competitiveness and employment’ (1993), White Paper on ‘European social policy’
(1994)

Conclusions  of  the  extraordinary  European  Council  meeting  on  employment,  Luxembourg,  November
1997

Decision  No  819/95/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council,  Council  Decision  of  14  March
1995  establishing  the  Community  action  programme  ‘Socrates’  (OJ  L  87,  20.4.1995)

Council Decision of 6 December 1994 on the implementation of a European Community vocational training
policy  ‘Leonardo’  (OJ  L  340,  29.12.1994)

L  42/24

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Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

16.2.1999

Council  Decision  No  267/90/EC  on  the  action  programme  for  the  development  of  continuing  vocational
training  in  the  EC  ‘FORCE’  (OJ  L  156,  21.6.1990)

Commission  communication  (July  1996)  and  Council  resolution  (December  1996)  on  equal  opportunities
for  people  with  disabilities

Framework  Directive  89/391/EEC  providing  for  minimum  requirements  concerning  health  and  safety  at
work  under  Article  118A

Anticipated  Council  Decision  adopting  a  Community  programme  (SAFE  —  Safety  actions  for  Europe)  to
improve  safety,  hygiene  and  health  at  work

Green  Paper  on  ‘European  social  policy’

White  Paper  on  ‘Teaching  and  learning:  Towards  a  learning  society’  (1995)

Joint  report  by  the  Ecofin/Employment  and  Social  Affairs  Council  and  the  Commission  to  the  European
Council  of  Heads  of  State  and/or  Government

Communication  from  the  Commission  on  a  Community  programme  concerning  safety,  hygiene  and  health
at  work  (1996-2000)  (COM(95)  282  final)

‘Platform  of  action’,  document  released  at  the  fourth  World  Conference  on  Women,  Peking  1995.

Statistical legislation

Apart from adaptation of Regulations in force, no major new statistical legal acts are envisaged. Legislative
acts  arising  from  new  programmes  which  will  replace  the  present  policy  documents  on  education  and
training  in  the  year  2000.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

TITLE  VIII: 

SOCIAL  POLICY,  EDUCATION,
VOCATIONAL  TRAINING  AND
YOUTH

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

Eurostat  work  themes

Population
Labour  market
Education

31
32
33
35 Health,  safety  and  consumer  protection
of 
36 Distribution 

incomes 

and 

living

conditions
Social  protection

37
38 Other  social  statistics  (housing  statistics)

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Time-use  survey  (theme  36).

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L  42/25

TITLE  IX

CULTURE

Statistical implications

Culture and the media play a decisive role in forging a European Union identity. In purely economic terms,
the cultural sector is growing, not only as regards the volume and quality of the services produced but also
as  a  source  of  job  creation.

The major challenge during the coming period is to produce internationally comparable statistics from data
collection  activities  already  operational  within  the  Member  States.

Summary

Work  will  consist  in:

—  developing  a  set  of  cultural  statistics  from  existing  sources.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  IX.

Policy  documents

Resolution  of  the  ‘Culture  and  Audiovisual’  Council  of  20  November  1995  on  the  promotion  of  statistics
on  cultural  matters.

First  report  on  the  consideration  of  cultural  aspects  in  European  Community  action,  presented  by  the
Commission  to  the  ‘Cultural  and  Audiovisual’  Council  in  the  first  half  of  1996.

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  IX:  CULTURE

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

34 Culture

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

None.

L  42/26

EN

Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

16.2.1999

TITLE  X

PUBLIC  HEALTH

Statistical implications

Article  3  of  the  Treaty  stipulates  that  Community  action  must  include  a  contribution  of  the  Community
towards  the  achievement  of  a  high  level  of  health  protection  and  Article  129  expressly  provides  for
Community  competence  in  the  field  of  public  health,  in  particular  by  encouraging  cooperation  between
Member  States  and,  if  necessary  lending  support  to  their  action.

In  June  1997,  the  European  Parliament  and  Council  adopted  a  Decision  for  a  programme  of  Community
action  on  health  monitoring  within  the  framework  for  action  in  the  field  of  public  health  (1997  to
2001).

The  action  programme  concerns  the  establishment  of  a  Community  health  monitoring  system  to  measure
health status, trends and determinants throughout the Community, to facilitate the planning monitoring and
evaluation  of  Community  programmes  and  actions  and  to  provide  Member  States  with  appropriate  health
information  to  make  comparisons  and  to  support  their  national  health  policies.

The  activities  planned  are  on  the  establishment  of  a  series  of  Community  comparable  data  on  health  and
health  determinants,  covering  domains  such  as  health  status  (including  inter  alia  disability,  morbidity,
accidents  and  mortality  by  cause),  lifestyle  and  health  habits,  health  care  resources  and  health  protection
measures.

The  work  will  mainly  build  on  existing  data  and  will  be  carried  out  in  cooperation  with  international
organisations  competent  in  the  field  of  public  health,  in  particular  the  World  Health  Organisation  (WHO)
and  the  Organisation  for  Economic  Cooperation  and  Development  (OECD).

Summary

During  the  next  five  years,  work  will  mainly  focus  on:

—  the  establishment  of  Community  health  indicators  including  the  selection  of  relevant  information  and
data  for  exchange  between  Member  States  and  the  Commission  and  international  organisations,  and
with  conceptual  work  related  to  the  process  of  making  the  data  comparable,

—  the  development  of  a  Community-wide  network  for  sharing  and  transferring  health  data  between
Member States and the Commission and international organisations (based on the IDA-CARE telematics
project),

—  the development of methods and tools necessary for analysis and reporting on health status, trends and

determinants,  and  the  effect  of  policies  on  health.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  One  and  Part  Three,  Title  X

Decision  No  1400/97/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  30  June  1997  adopting  a
programme  of  Community  action  on  health  monitoring  within  the  framework  for  action  in  the  field  of
public  health  (1997  to  2001)  (OJ  L  193,  22.7.1997).

Policy  documents

White  Paper  on  the  ‘European  social  policy’.

16.2.1999

EN

Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

L  42/27

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  X: 

PUBLIC  HEALTH

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

35 Health  safety  and  consumer  protection
37

Social  protection

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

None.

TITLE  XI

CONSUMER  PROTECTION

Statistical implications

Article  3  of  the  Treaty  stipulates  that  Community  action  must  include  a  contribution  of  the  Community
towards  the  strengthening  of  consumer  protection.

According  to  Article  100a  of  the  Treaty,  the  Commission  should  in  its  proposals  for  measures  on  the
establishment  or  functioning  of  the  internal  market  concerning  consumer  protection  take  as  a  base  a  high
level  of  protection.  Article  129a  of  the  Treaty  expressly  provides  for  Community  competence  for  specific
action  in  the  area  of  consumer  protection  which  supports  and  supplements  the  policy  pursued  by  the
Member  States  to  protect  the  health,  safety  and  economic  interests  of  consumers  and  to  provide  adequate
information  to  consumers.

Summary

During  the  period  of  the  programme,  main  activities  will  be  on:

—  providing  technical  assistance  for  the  collection  and  evaluation  of  data.

Legal references

EC  Treaty  —  Title  I,  Title  V,  Title  X

Council  Decision  of  22  May  1995  amending  Decision  No  3092/94/EC.

Policy  document

Proposal  for  a  Decision  of  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  establishing  a  general  framework  for
Community  activities  in  favour  of  consumers  —  communication  of  E.  Bonino  of  28  January  1998.

L  42/28

EN

Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

16.2.1999

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  XI:  CONSUMER  PROTECTION

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

35 Health  safety  and  consumer  protection
of 
36 Distribution 

incomes 

and 

living

conditions

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

None.

TITLE  XII

TRANS-EUROPEAN  NETWORKS

Energy

Statistical implications

The TEN initiative has provided a renewed impetus and dimension to energy statistics serving primarily to
support  measures  taken  by  the  Community  and  stemming  from  the  energy  component  in  several  policies,
e. g.  competition  (particularly,  as  regards  public  companies),  the  Single  Market,  transport,  research  and
development  and  the  environment.  The  objective  background  to  the  choice  of  measures  consists  of
structural  and  short-term  data  on  energy  production  and  consumption  and  the  prices  involved.

Trade  statistics  in  the  field  of  energy  will  be  consolidated  and  enhanced.

Measures  of  the  environmental  dimension  in  energy,  needed  for,  inter  alia,  assessing  the  impact  on  the
environment  of  emissions  of  pollutants  and  ways  of  reducing  them,  will  be  developed.  This  concerns
particularly  the  development  of  renewable  energy  sources,  the  rational  use  of  energy  and  substitutes.

Summary

Work  will  mainly  focus  on:

—  consolidating  and  improving  trade  statistics  in  the  field  of  energy  to  enable  a  follow-up  of  the  internal

market  in  the  energy  domain,

—  developing  a  set  of  statistics  on  the  environmental  impact  of  energy  in  accordance  with  the  obligations

taken  on  by  the  Member  States  within  the  framework  of  the  post-Kyoto  strategy.

Legal references

Treaties  establishing  the  ECSC  and  Euratom;  Treaty  on  European  Union

Council  Directive  90/377/EEC  of  29  June  1990  concerning  the  Community  procedure  to  improve  the
transparency  of  gas  and  electricity  prices  charged  to  industrial  end  users

16.2.1999

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L  42/29

Commission  Decision  No  2390/96/ECSC  of  16  December  1996  and  Commission  Recommendation
96/88/ECSC  of  16  December  1996  concerning  solid-fuel  statistics.

Policy  documents

White  Paper  on  energy  policy  for  the  European  Union  (COM(95)  682)

Commission  communication  of  20  November  1996  on  ‘Energy  for  the  future:  renewable  sources  of  energy
—  Green  Paper  for  a  Community  strategy’

Commission  document  ‘Energy  in  Europe  on  2020  —  A  scenario  approach’  (1996)

Proposal  for  a  Council  Decision  concerning  the  organisation  of  cooperation  around  agreed  Community
energy  objectives  (submitted  by  the  Commission)  (COM(96)  431)

Altener  programme  of  29  June  1992  on  the  promotion  of  renewable  energy  sources.

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Telematic  networks

Statistical implications

During  the  next  period,  work  will  focus  on  the  introduction  of  new  information  technologies,  EDI  and
telematic  networks  supporting  the  European  statistical  system  on  priority  areas  such  as  national  accounts,
balance  of  payments,  ECU  statistics,  external  trade  statistics,  industrial  indictors,  Prodcom,  price  indices,
transport,  insurance,  agriculture,  health,  employment  and  the  environment.

The  statistical  domains  will  be  reviewed  in  the  light  of  the  Commission’s  policy  priorities,  bearing  in  mind
in  particular  the  deadlines  for  the  introduction  of  the  euro  and  the  statistics  connected  with  convergence
criteria,  regional  and  social  policy,  industrial  and  commercial  policy,  possible  developments  in  the
enlargement  of  the  European  Union  and  the  effects  of  the  year  2000  on  the  demand  for  statistics.

Summary

Priority  will  be  given  to  the  implementation:

—  of an inter-organisational network with all partners of the European statistical system for the exchange

of  data,

—  of  a  European  reference  environment  for  the  dissemination  of  data.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  XII  (telematic  networks)

Interchange  of  data  between  administrations  (IDA)  programme  (Council  Decision  95/468/EC)

Council  Decision  96/715/EC  of  December  1996  on  inter-administration  telematic  networks  for  statistics
relating  to  the  trading  of  goods  between  Member  States  (Edicom)

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Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

16.2.1999

Policy  documents

Europe  and  the  global  information  society  —  Recommendations  to  the  European  Council  —  Bangemann
report

A  communication  for  the  Council  on  electronic  commerce  is  currently  being  prepared

A  new  legal  basis  is  currently  being  prepared  for  a  new  ‘IDA  2’  programme  for  the  period  1998-2002.

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Transport  networks

Statistical implications

Decision  No  1692/96/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  23  July  1996  on  Community
guidelines  for  the  development  of  the  trans-European  network  puts  into  practice  the  new  Community
competencies  conferred  by  the  Treaty  on  European  Union.

Implementing  this  Decision  requires  relevant  statistics  which  can  be  used  to  monitor  and  evaluate
Community policies and activities aimed at establishing and developing trans-European transport networks,
with  a  view  to  contributing  to  the  smooth  functioning  of  the  internal  market  and  strengthening  economic
and  social  cohesion.  Statistics  are  also  needed  to  evaluate  the  environmental  impacts  of  trans-European
networks,  and  to  develop  policies  in  such  a  way  as  to  minimise  these  impacts.

These  statistics,  in  combination  with  a  geographical  reference,  will  relate  to  traffic  flows  on  the
trans-European  networks  and  to  traffic  volumes  at  the  points  at  which  the  various  modes  of  transport
interconnect.

Information on infrastructure parameters and on the corresponding investment will also be collected at both
European  and  national  and  regional  levels  (distribution  of  the  structural  funds).

Summary

Work  will  focus  on:

—  analysis  of  the  sources  and  methods  to  be  used  in  introducing  statistics  on  transport  infrastructures

within  the  framework  of  a  geographical  information  system.

Legal bases

Decision  No  1692/96/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  23  July  1996  on  Community
guidelines  for  the  development  of  the  trans-European  transport  network  (OJ  L  228,  9.9.1996).

Policy  documents

Communication  from  the  Commission  to  the  Council,  the  European  Parliament,  the  Economic  and  Social
Committee,  and  the  Committee  of  the  Regions  on  public-private  partnerships  in  TENs  projects  (COM(97)
453  final).

16.2.1999

EN

Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

L  42/31

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  XII:  TRANS-EUROPEAN  NETWORKS

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

Other  important  contributory  themes

Energy  and  raw  materials

45
48 Transport
49 Communication

Science  and  technology

73
53 Trade  in  goods

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

None.

TITLE  XIII

INDUSTRY

Statistical implications

Article  130  of  the  EC  Treaty  states  that  the  Community  and  the  Member  States  shall  ensure  that  the
conditions  necessary  for  the  competitiveness  of  the  Community’s  industry  exist.  This  implies  the  need  at
Community  level  for  a  range  of  harmonised  industrial  statistics  in  order  to  assess  levels  and  trends  in
competitiveness.

A  primary  activity  at  the  start  of  the  period  covered  by  this  programme  will  be  the  implementation  of  the
1996 Council Regulation on statistics on the structure of businesses that includes a number of new variables
aimed  at  monitoring  the  competitiveness  of  industry  more  effectively.  Work  will  continue  on  the  use  of
industry  data  by  region  for  the  evaluation  of  spending  of  regional  funds.

The  follow-up  of  the  progress  of  the  internal  market  will  be  considerably  improved  by  new  statistics  on
market  size  due  to  the  systematic  use  of  the  Prodcom  system,  which  has  recently  completed  its  initiation
phase.

Important  areas  for  improvement,  as  far  as  the  environmental  dimension  of  industry  is  concerned,  include
data  on  expenditure,  on  industries  specialised  in  environmental  goods  and  services,  as  well  as  the  use  of
production  and  input  data  for  material  and  resource  accounts.

Taking  into  account  the  requirements  of  the  Commission  and  the  European  Monetary  Institute  for  better
industry  indicators  to  monitor  convergence  and  the  progress  of  the  business  cycle,  a  set  of  short-term
indicators  will  be  developed.

In order to prepare the future of the iron and steel sector, proposals will be elaborated in order to integrate
steel  statistics  into  the  existing  industrial  statistics  system  after  the  end  of  the  ECSC  Treaty  in  2002.

L  42/32

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16.2.1999

Summary

During  the  next  period,  work  will  principally  concentrate  on:

—  the  implementation  of  the  Regulations  on  structural  business  statistics  and  on  short-term  indicators  of

industry,

—  improving  the  simplification  and  effectiveness  of  the  Prodcom  system,

—  the  integration  of  future  steel  statistics  into  the  existing  industrial  statistics  system,

—  the development of indicators on intangible investment, subcontracting and globalisation in the context

of  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation  of  structural  business  statistics.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Coal  and  Steel  Community

Council Regulation (EC) No 3696/93 of 29 October 1993 on statistical classification of products by activity
(CPA)

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 of 22 July 1993 on Community coordination in drawing up business
registers  for  statistical  purposes

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  696/93  of  15  March  1993  on  the  statistical  units  for  the  observation  and
analysis  of  the  production  system  in  the  Community

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  3037/90  of  9  October  1990  concerning  the  statistical  nomenclature  of
economic activities in the European Community and amended by Regulation (EEC) No 761/93 of 24 March
1993

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  3924/91  of  19  December  1991  concerning  the  statistical  classification  and
collection  of  industrial  production  statistics  (Prodcom)

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  1588/90  of  11  June  1990  on  the  transmission  of  confidential  data  by  the
national  statistical  institutes  to  Eurostat

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics
(OJ  L  14,  17.1.1997),  as  amended  by  Regulation  410/98

Council  Directive  72/211/EEC  of  30  May  1972  concerning  coordinated  statistics  on  the  business  cycle  in
industry  and  small  craft  industries.  Council  Directive  78/166/EEC  of  13  February  1978  concerning
coordinated  statistics  on  the  business  cycle  in  building  and  civil  engineering

Commission  Decision  No  1566/86/ECSC  of  24  February  1986  concerning  iron  and  steel  statistics

Commission  Decision  No  3731/91/ECSC  of  18  October  1991  concerning  the  modification  of  the
in  the  Annex  to  Decisions  No  1566/86/ECSC,  No  4104/88/ECSC  and
questionnaires  contained 
No  3938/89/ECSC

Commission  Decision  No  3641/92/ECSC  of  24  November  1992,  amending  Decision  No  1566/86/ECSC

16.2.1999

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L  42/33

Commission  recommendation  of  16  November  1994  concerning  statistics  on  traders  of  steel  products.

Policy  documents

White  Paper  on  ‘Growth,  competitiveness  and  employment’  (1993)

Communication  from  the  Commission  —  Benchmarking  the  competitiveness  of  European  industry
(COM(96)  463)

Council  Decision  97/15/EC  of  9  December  1996  on  a  third  multiannual  programme  for  small  and
medium-sized  enterprises  (SMEs)  in  the  European  Union  (1997  to  2000)

Annual  report  on  the  structural  funds.

Annual  report  on  the  competitiveness  of  European  industry.

Statistical legislation

Council  Regulation  on  short-term  business  statistics.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  XIII: 

INDUSTRY

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

Industry
Energy  and  raw  materials

44
45
66 Agro-industry  statistics

Other  important  contributory  themes

53 Trade  in  goods

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Delayed  financial  support  for  actions  in  the  Member  States  to  accelerate  this  implementation  of  the  new
Regulations  on  short-term  indicators  and  structural  business  statistics  for  industry  (theme  44).

TITLE  XIV

ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  COHESION

Statistical implications

The correction of social and regional imbalances is one of the three pillars of European construction, along
with  the  achievement  of  EMU  and  the  completion  of  the  Single  Market;  it  is  the  primary  objective  of  the
Structural Funds. Since their reform in 1988, the Commission has endowed itself with an integrated policy
for  social  and  economic  cohesion  within  which  regional  statistics  play  an  essential  role  in  the  decision
implementation  process.  Community  legislation  on  Structural  Funds  will  continue  to  determine  statistical
activity: for instance, eligibility of zones under regional objectives is defined on the basis of socio-economic

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16.2.1999

criteria with respect to certain thresholds; financial allocations to Member States are decided objectively on
the  basis  of  statistical  indicators;  and  a  greater  policy  interest  in  urban  areas  is  likely  to  lead  to  a
requirement  for  statistics.

The  evaluation  of  the  impact  of  Community  policies  at  regional  level  and  the  quantification  of  regional
disparities  demands  also  the  availability  of  numerous  regionally  based  statistics.

The  regular  evaluation  reports  provided  by  the  Commission  (‘Periodic  reports’  and  ‘Report  on  social  and
economic  cohesion’)  on  the  socio-economic  evolution  in  the  regions  necessitates  a  significant  battery  of
statistical  information.  Ranging  over  a  broad  spectrum  of  issues  such  as  employment  and  unemployment,
health,  education,  living  standards  in  general,  agricultural  production,  industrial  development,  transport,
environmental  conditions,  energy  sources  and  numerous  other  important  policy  areas,  it  is  necessary  to
evaluate  developments  in  all  such  areas  at  regional  level.  Statistical  information  is  required  to  monitor  the
current  position  in  all  such  domains  as  well  as  the  trends  over  time.

Given  the  ever-increasing  relevance  of  environmental  policy  and  the  impact  of  various  policies  on  the
environment, the development of geographically indexed databases are required in order to provide data for
monitoring  and  policy  formulation.

Regions

Activity  during  the  next  programming  period  will  be  driven  by  the  defining  (in  1998-1999),  putting  into
place and monitoring (from 2000 onwards) of the new guidelines for Community regional policy, as well as
evaluating  the  action  taken  during  the  current  1994-1999  period.

Geographical information

The emphasis will be placed on coordinating work with the national statistical systems (NSIs). The objective
will  be  to  provide  the  statistical  community  with  a  European  geographical  information  system  (GIS)
consisting  of  a  network  of  national  and  Community  systems.  This  will  require  strengthening  cooperation
with the NSIs in this field by promoting the idea of GIS at the service of statistics, further work in the area
of  standardisation  and  endeavouring  to  achieve  pan-European  coverage  for  geographical  information.

Summary

Work  will  chiefly  focus  on:

—  defining,  putting  into  place  and  monitoring  the  new  Community  regional  policy,

—  extending  the  sectoral  and  geographical  coverage  of  regional  statistics,

—  developing  a  European  geographical  information  system  in  cooperation  with  the  national  statistical

institutes.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  XIV

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2081/93  of  20  July  1993,  amending  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2052/88  on  the
tasks  of  the  Structural  Funds  and  related  Council  Regulations  (EEC)  No  2082/93  to  (EEC)  No  2085/93

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  2223/96  of  25  June  1996  on  the  European  system  of  national  and  regional
accounts  in  the  Community

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics
(OJ  L  14,  17.1.1997),  as  amended  by  Regulation  (EC)  No  410/98

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3711/91 of 16 December 1991 on the organisation of an annual labour force
sample  survey  in  the  Community

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Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  571/88  on  surveys  on  the  structure  of  agricultural  holdings,  as  amended  by
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  2467/96  of  24  December  1996.

Policy  documents

‘Competitiveness and cohesion: fifth periodic report on the social and economic situation and development
of  the  regions  in  the  Community’

‘Europe  2000+  —  cooperation  for  European  regional  development’

‘First  report  on  economic  and  social  cohesion’

Communication  from  the  Commission  —  Towards  an  urban  agenda  in  the  European  Union  (COM(97)
197)

Proposal  for  a  Council  Regulation  laying  down  general  provisions  on  the  Structural  Funds.

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  XIV:  ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL
COHESION

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

23 Restructuring  plans
72 Regional  and  geographical  information

Other  important  contributory  themes

Industry

Population
Labour  market

31
32
40 Annual  economic  accounts
44
47 Distributive  trades
50 Tourism
51
Services
63 Agricultural  incomes  and  prices

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

None.

TITLE  XV

RESEARCH  AND  TECHNOLOGICAL  DEVELOPMENT

Statistics  on  research  and  innovation

Statistical implications

As  mentioned  in  the  Treaty  Articles  of  Title  XV,  the  Community  shall  have  the  objective  of  strengthening
the  scientific  and  technological  basis  of  Community  industry  and  encouraging  it  to  become  more

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competitive  at  international  level  by  promoting  research  activities.  In  Title  XIII,  the  Treaty  also  mentions
that  the  Community  and  the  Member  States  shall  ensure  that  the  conditions  necessary  for  the
competitiveness  of  the  Community’s  industry  exist.  The  ability  of  businesses  to  innovate  and  benefit  from
the  ‘knowledge  industry’  is  undoubtedly  an  important  element  in  the  competitiveness  of  European
industry.

In order to conduct this policy, the European Union needs statistics on R & D, technological innovation and
science  and  technology  in  general,  whether  financed  publicly  or  privately.  These  statistics  should  facilitate
the  coordination  of  RTD  developments  as  mentioned  in  Article  130H,  the  establishment  of  multiannual
framework programmes (Article 130I) and the production of the report stipulated in Article 130P. They will
also  be  useful  for  the  Member  States  for  defining,  monitoring  and  evaluating  their  national  science  and
technology policies.

Statistics  are  also  required  to  assess  R & D  capability  of  regions  for  administering  the  Structural  Funds.

Priority  will  be  given  to  improve  the  quality  of  the  data  produced  in  terms  of  comparability,  scope,
timeliness and analyses.

Summary

Work  will  principally  focus  on:

—  new  statistical  actions  or  projects  to  measure  the  performance  and  impact  of  R & D,

—  extending  the  innovation  survey  and  assuring  a  better  coordination  of  data  collection.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  XV

Council  Decision  94/78/EC,  Euratom,  establishing  a  multiannual  programme  for  the  development  of
Community  statistics  on  research,  development  and  innovation

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  XIII.

Policy  documents

Interim  report  under  Article  8  of  the  Council  Decision  No  78/97/EC,  Euratom  (COM(96)  42  final)

Green  Paper  on  innovation  (COM(95)  688)

Implementation  of  the  action  plan  of  innovation  (COM(97)  736)

Amended  proposal  for  a  European  Parliament  and  Council  Decision  concerning  the  fifth  framework
programme  of  the  European  Community  for  research,  technological  development  and  demonstration
activities  (1998  to  2002)  (COM(97)  439  final)

Amended  proposal  for  a  Council  Decision  concerning  the  fifth  framework  programme  of  the  European
Atomic  Energy  Community  (Euratom)  for  research  and  training  activities  (1998  to  2002)  (COM(97)  439
final)

Communication  from  the  Commission  —  Benchmarking  the  competitiveness  of  European  industry
(COM(96)  463).

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

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Statistical  research

Statistical implications

As  part  of  its  R & D  policy  (see  the  Articles  under  Title  XV  of  the  Treaty),  the  Community  endeavours  to
promote  research  activities  which  support  Community  policies.  Statistics  have  been  identified  in  various
framework  programmes  (and  in  the  preparatory  documents  for  the  fifth  framework  programme)  as  a
priority  area  in  which  R & D  activities  will  be  launched  at  Community  level.

Summary

During  the  next  five-year  period  work  will  focus  on:

—  the  development  of  adequate  tools,  the  promotion  of  exchanges  with  the  scientific  community  and  the

users  of  technology,

—  the  promotion  of  new  methods  within  a  framework  of  best  practice.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  XV

Decision  No  1110/94/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  26  April  1994  concerning  the
fourth  framework  programme  of  European  Community  activities  in  the  field  of  research  and  technological
development  and  demonstration  (1994-1998).

Policy  documents

Amended  proposal  for  European  Parliament  and  Council  Decision  concerning  the  fifth  framework
programme  of  the  European  Community  for  research,  technological  development  and  demonstration
activities  (1998  to  2002)  (COM(97)  439  final)

Amended  proposal  for  a  Council  Decision  concerning  the  fifth  framework  programme  of  the  European
Atomic  Energy  Community  (Euratom)  for  research  and  training  activities  (1998  to  2002)  (COM(97)  439
final)

Commission working paper on the specific programmes of the fifth framework programme for research and
technological  development:  Starting  points  for  discussion  (COM(97)  553).

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  XV:  RESEARCH  AND

TECHNOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

22
73

Statistical research
Science  and  technology

Other  important  contributory  themes

44

Industry

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Research  and  development  statistics:  innovation  statistics  survey  (theme  73).

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TITLE  XVI

ENVIRONMENT

Statistical implications

The  main  objective  of  environment  statistics  is  to  serve  as  an  efficient  tool  for  implementation  and
evaluation  of  the  environmental  policy  of  the  European  Union.  The  European  Commission’s  fifth
environment action programme ‘Towards sustainability’ and the review of the programme that took place in
1996  indicate  the  priority  areas  for  environment  statistics.  Crucial  for  a  sustainable  development  is  the
integration of environmental policies into other policies. To serve as a tool for such integrated policies, the
environmental  component  of  the  Community  statistics  needs  to  be  fully  harmonised  with  the  relevant
socio-economic statistics. Policy areas such as social and regional development, agriculture, transport, energy
and  industry  all  have  essential  environmental  targets  to  fulfil  and  the  environmental  component  should  be
included in statistics supporting these policies. It is also planned to develop, put in place and consolidate an
integrated  system  of  satellite  accounts  tracing  the  interactions  between  the  economy  and  the  environment
for all the Member States. An environmental component needs also to be added to social statistics in order
to  reflect  changes  in  life  style  and  consumption  patterns,  and  the  linkages  between  environment  and
employment  need  to  be  highlighted.

In the communication on ‘Environmental indicators and green accounting’, the Commission underlined the
need  for  solid  data  linking  the  environmental  pressures  with  economic  and  social  actions.

A  set  of  environment  statistics  has  been  developed,  collected  and  disseminated  during  recent  years,  in
accordance with the four-year programme for developing the environmental component of official statistics
(Council  Decision  No  808/94/EC).  This  programme  has  been  designed  to  meet  the  needs  for  statistics
together  with  the  information  from  the  European  Environment  Agency.  The  four-year  programme  covers
pressures  on  the  environment  and  responses  from  society,  as  well  as  economic  and  social  statistics  already
available  to  describe  the  underlying  driving  forces  leading  to  environmental  deterioration.  However,
substantial  gaps  still  remain  and  they  need  to  be  filled.  Current  and  likely  future  resource  availability  does
not  permit  the  desired  comprehensive  progress,  even  allowing  for  the  increasing  contribution  of  sectoral
statistics  indicated  under  Titles  II,  IV,  XII,  XIII  and  XIV.

Priority  will  be  given  to  improve  the  reporting  function  of  environment  statistics  through  various
publications and through databases and to continue the development of the statistics according to the lines
set  out  in  the  four-year  programme.  Consideration  will  be  given  to  extending  Council  Decision  No
808/94/EC.  The  actions  started  in  order  to  produce  pressure  indexes  will  continue  and  pressure  indicators
will  be  published  regularly,  covering  all  the  main  environmental  issues  and  sectors.  A  strong  focus  will  be
given to the supply of comparable statistics linking environment and sectoral issues, in order to support the
integration  of  environment  policy  into  sectoral  policies.  Ongoing  work  will  be  continued  to  fill  important
data  gaps  relating  to  waste  and  recycling  statistics,  water  use  and  discharges,  use  of  hazardous  and  scarce
materials,  as  well  as  environmental  expenditure.

A  set  of  satellite  accounts  for  the  environment  linked  to  the  national  accounts  will  be  developed  covering
the  stocks  and  use  of  the  main  natural  resources,  flows  of  materials,  emissions  and  environmental
expenditure.  These  accounts  are  useful  in  themselves  and  constitute  an  essential  basis  for  environmental
analysis  and  the  development  of  more  comprehensive  models  for  the  interaction  between  the  economy  and
the  environment.

Summary

The  main  effort  in  the  next  five  years  will  be  to:

—  pursue  the  development  of  environment  statistics  with  preference  given  to  the  existing,  available  basic

data  and  improve  their  dissemination,

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—  continue  the  production  and  further  development  of  environmental  indicators  and  statistics  linking

environment  and  various  sectors  of  the  economy,

—  develop  a  set  of  satellite  accounts  for  the  environment  with  which  developments  in  the  areas  of  the

economy  and  the  environment  can  be  jointly  analysed,

—  increase  cooperation  with  the  European  Environment  Agency.

Much  of  the  work  will  be  carried  out  in  partnership  with  the  European  Environment  Agency.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  XVI

Council  Decision  94/808/EC  of  15  December  1994,  adopting  a  four-year  development  programme
(1994-1997)  relating  to  the  environmental  component  of  Community  statistics  (OJ  L  328,  20.12.1994)

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics
(OJ  L  14,  17.1.1997).

Policy  documents

Fifth  action  programme  ‘Towards  sustainability’

Directions  for  the  EU  on  environmental  indicators  and  green  national  accounting  —  The  integration  of
environmental  and  economic  information  systems  (COM(94)  670).

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  completion  of  ongoing  work  (waste  statistics),  no  major  mew  statistical  legal  acts  are
envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  XVI:  ENVIRONMENT

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

41 Quarterly  and  environment  accounts
Environment  statistics  and  indicators
71

Other  important  contributory  themes

Industry
Energy  and  raw  materials

44
45
48 Transport
50 Tourism
61
62 Agricultural  structures
64 Crop  production
65 Animal  production
68

Land  use  and  countryside

Forestry  statistics

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Provision  of  basic  data  for  environment  statistics  (theme  71).

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TITLE  XVII

COOPERATION  WITH  THIRD  COUNTRIES

Cooperation  with  central  and  eastern  Europe  and  new  independent  States

Statistical implications

In  addition  to  the  general  provision  to  cooperate  in  the  area  of  statistics  foreseen  under  the  Community
agreements,  12  PHARE  countries  have  intensified  their  cooperation  with  the  Commission  and  Member
States,  in  view  of  implementing  the  international  and  Community  statistical  standards  to  provide  the  same
data  that  is  required  from  EU  Member  States,  with  the  same  degree  of  comparability  and  quality.  For  the
remaining PHARE and TACIS countries, it is clear that the policies of the European Union require data that
is  comparable  and  compiled  according  to  such  standards.

Summary

During  the  five-year  period,  work  will  mainly  focus  on:

—  continuing  the  technical  assistance  and  training  for  these  countries,

—  improving  the  statistical  information  system  of  these  countries.

Legal references

PHARE  programme:

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3906/89 of 18 December 1989 on economic aid to the Republic of Hungary
and  the  Polish  People’s  Republic  (OJ  L  375,  23.12.1989)

TACIS programme:

Council  Regulation  (EC,  Euratom)  No  1279/96  of  25  June  1996  concerning  the  provision  of  assistance  to
economic  reform  and  recovery  in  the  new  independent  States  and  Mongolia  (OJ  L  165,  4.7.1996)

Prior to that, Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 2157/91 of 15 July 1991 concerning the provision of
technical assistance to economic reform and recovery in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (OJ L 201,
24.7.1991)

Council  Regulation  (EEC,  Euratom)  No  2053/93  of  19  July  1993  (OJ  L  187,  29.7.1993).

Policy  documents

PHARE programme: Europe Agreements have been signed with 10 of the 13 PHARE beneficiary countries’
governments.  The  approximation  foreseen  under  these  Agreements  extends  to  the  statistics  area.

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

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Cooperation  with  other  third  countries

Statistical implications

All the legislative texts relating to this activity explicitly state the need for reliable and comparable statistics
for  the  purpose  of  deciding  on  and  implementing  the  policies  concerned.

This  means  not  only  making  statistics  available  to  the  European  Union  authorities  but  also,  under  a
partnership  arrangement,  supporting  the  national  and  regional  statistical  systems  of  non-member  countries
so  that  they  will  be  able  to  provide  these  statistics.

Summary

During  the  five-year  period  work  will  principally  consist  in:

—  pursuing  the  technical  assistance  and  training  for  third  countries  according  to  the  needs  of  partner

countries  and  to  the  priorities  fixed  by  the  Community.

Legal references

Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  —  Part  Three  —  Title  XVII

ACP  countries  —  Lome´ Convention  No  IV  —  1990-2000  —  Protocol  VIII,  1995-2000.

Policy  documents

Commission  communication  to  the  Council  —  Horizon  2000

Green  Paper  on  EU/ACP  relations:  a  new  partnership  for  the  21st  century

Bilateral  and  regional  cooperation  agreements  with  the  majority  of  non-member  countries

Mediterranean  —  Barcelona  Declaration,  28  November  1995  —  Work  programme  I  —  Points  II,  III  and
IV.

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

Eurostat  work  themes

TITLE  XVII:  DEVELOPMENT  COOPERATION

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

19 Technical 
transition
Preparation  of  enlargement

assistance 

to 

20
21 Technical  cooperation  with  third  countries

countries 

in

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Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Technical  cooperation  with  third  countries  (theme  21).

TITLE  XVIII

OTHER

Community  own  resources

Statistical implications

Own  resources  necessitating  specific  statistical  work  are  VAT  (the  third  resource)  and  GNP  (the  fourth
resource). As far as VAT is concerned, the task at hand is essentially to keep a check on the calculation of
the  weighted  average  rate  of  VAT  using  the  data  on  the  structure  of  GDP.  As  regards  GNP,  the  job  is  to
examine the comparability, representativeness and exhaustiveness of the GNP figures of the Member States
and  to  harmonise  the  methods  and  the  statistical  bases  for  calculating  GNP.

Summary

Main  objective  during  the  next  five  years  will  be  to:

—  continue  the  monitoring  work  on  the  data  provided  by  the  Member  States,

—  set  up  a  link  between  ESA  79  and  ESA  95,

—  verify  the  correct  implementation  of  the  ESA  95  system  of  accounts,

—  continue  the  work  aimed  a  lifting  outstanding  reservations  concerning  the  calculation  of  GNP.

Legal references

Article  201  of  the  Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community

Council  Decision  94/728/EC,  Euratom  of  31  October  1994  (OJ  L  293,  12.11.1994).

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Enlargement  of  the  European  Union

Statistical implications

For  the  negotiations  on  accession,  the  Commission  must  be  able  to  draw  on  a  complete  set  of  reliable
statistics,  methodologically  comparable  with  those  of  the  European  Union  countries.

The technical cooperation work which Eurostat has been conducting for several years with the countries of
central and eastern Europe has enabled the statistical systems of those countries to move forward and into
line  with  those  of  the  European  Union.

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Certainly  basic  economic  statistics  are  indispensable:  sectoral  distribution  of  GDP  creation,  population,
employment, etc. Other key areas are those which measure the implementation of the internal market, that
is activities with cross-border effect such as trade in goods, trade in services and freedom of establishment,
balance  of  payments,  capital  flows  (FDI,  FAT),  mobility  of  persons  (migrant  workers,  migration,  asylum
seekers,  etc.),  industrial  production  and  structure  with  a  view  to  capacity,  etc.

In addition there are requirements for statistics in sectors sensitive for the accession negotiations, supporting
primary  EU  policies  such  as  agriculture,  transport,  regional  and  environment.

Summary

During  the  five-year  period  work  will  concentrate  on:

—  collecting  harmonised  data  for  the  negotiations  with  pre-accession  countries,

—  assisting  candidate  countries  to  improve  their  statistical  systems  to  meet  Community  requirements.

Statistical legislation

Apart  from  adaptation  of  Regulations  in  force,  no  major  new  statistical  legal  acts  are  envisaged.

Legal references

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  622/98  of  16  March  1998  on  assistance  to  the  applicant  States  in  the
framework  of  the  pre-accession  strategy,  and  in  particular  on  the  establishment  of  Accession  Partnership
(OJ  L  85,  20.3.1998).

Policy  needs  and  Eurostat  outputs

Treaty  title

TITLE  XVIII: 

COMMUNITY  STATISTICAL
WORK  NOT  COVERED  BY
TREATY  TITLES

Eurostat  work  themes

Principal  themes  of  work  necessary  for  this
policy area

43 Control  of  own  resources
20

Preparation  of  enlargement

Work  for  this  title  delayed  due  to  resource  constraints

Monitoring  of  Community  own  resources  (theme  43).

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ANNEX  II

COMMUNITY  STATISTICAL  PROGRAMME  (1998-2002):  WORK  THEMES

I. 

Statistical  infrastructure

11  Classifications

12  Statistical training

13  Electronic  data  processing

14 

Information  technologies

15  Reference  databases

16 

Information

17  Dissemination

18  Statistical  coordination

19  Technical  assistance  to  countries  in  transition

20  Preparation  of  enlargement

21  Technical  cooperation  with  third  countries

22  Statistical research

23  Restructuring  plans

24  Registers

25  Data  security  and  statistical  confidentiality

II.  Demographic  and  social  statistics

31  Population

32  Labour  market

33  Education

34  Culture

35  Health,  safety  and  consumer  protection

36  Distribution  of  incomes  and  living  conditions

37  Social  protection

38  Other  social  statistics

III.  Economic  statistics

IIIA.  Macroeconomic  statistics

40  Annual  economic  accounts

41  Quarterly  and  environment  accounts

42  Financial  accounts

43  Monitoring  own  resources

55  Prices

IIIB. 

Business  statistics

44 

Industry

45  Energy  and  raw  materials

47  Distributive  trades

48  Transport

49  Communication

50  Tourism

51  Services

57  Other  economic  statistics

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IIIC.  Monetary,  financial,  trade  and  balance  of  payments  statistics

52  Money  and  finance

53  Trade  in  goods

54  Trade  in  services  and  balance  of  payments

IV.  Agriculture,  forestry  and  fisheries

61  Land  use  and  countryside

62  Agricultural  structures

63  Agricultural  incomes  and  prices

64  Crop  production

65  Animal  production

66  Agro-industry  statistics

67  Reforming  agricultural  statistics

68  Forestry  statistics

69  Fisheries  statistics

V.  Multi-domain  statistics

71  Environment  statistics  and  indicators

72  Regional  and  geographical  information

73  Science  and  technology

VI.  Statistics  of  other  Directorates-General

81  Economic  and  financial  statistics  (DG  II)

82 

Industrial  statistics  (DG  III)

83  Agricultural  statistics  (DG  VI)  (included  for  information  only)

84  Transport  statistics  (DG  VII)

85  Environment  statistics  (DG  XI)

86  R & D  statistics  (DG  XII)

87  Fisheries  statistics  (DG  XIV)

88  Energy  statistics  (DG  XVII)

VII.  Resources  and  management

91 

International  relations

92  Planning  and  evaluation  of  work

93  Management  of  human  resources

94  Management  of  financial  resources

95  Management  of  legal  bases

96  Audit

97  General  administration

99  Decentralised management