Commission Regulation (EC) No 264/2000 of 3 February 2000 on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 with respect to short-term public finance statistics
Date: 2000-02-03
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, European accounting system, data transmission, public finance, social-security contribution, tax system

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Official Journal of the European Communities

4. 2. 2000

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 264/2000

of 3 February 2000

on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 with respect to short-term public
finance statistics

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25
June 1996 on the European system of national and regional
accounts in the Community (1), as amended by Regulation (EC)
No 448/98 (2), and in particular Article 3(2) thereof,

(8)

(9)

The Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of
Payments Statistics (CMFB), set up by Council Decision
91/115/EEC (4), as amended by Decision 96/174/EC (5),
has been consulted.

The measures provided in this Regulation are in accord-
the Statistical Programme
ance with the opinion of
Committee (SPC),
set up by Decision 89/382/EEC,
Euratom (6),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

Pursuant to Article 104/(2) of the Treaty, the Commis-
sion is to monitor the development of the budgetary
situation.

Council Regulation (EC) No 1466/97 of 7 July 1997 on
the strengthening of the surveillance of budgetary posi-
tions and the surveillance and coordination of economic
policies (3) considered appropriate to complement the
multilaterial surveillance procedure of Article 99(3) and
(4) of the Treaty with an early warning system, under
which the Council will alert a Member State at an early
stage to the need to take the necessary budgetary
corrective action in order to prevent a government
deficit becoming excessive.

The report of the Ecofin Council on statistical require-
ments in economic and monetary union, approved on
18 January 1999, outlined in particular the need for
common and harmonised short-term public finance stat-
istics for Member States, in particular those who belong
to economic and monetary union.

National accounts rules, especially European System of
accounts 1995 (ESA 95) concepts, are regarded as
instruments to ensure comparability and transparency of
data between Member States.

A step-by-step approach towards the compilation of a
full set of quarterly accounts for the general government
sector in the framework of ESA 95 should be followed,
starting from 2000 with a first set of components of the
general government accounts being available according
to ESA 95 concepts.

Priority should be given to components representing
reliable predictors of trend in public finance and regu-
larly available on time.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Purpose

The aim of this Regulation is to define the list and the main
characteristics of the ESA 95 categories of transactions to be
transmitted quarterly by all Member States from the year 2000,
in order to make available a set of common and harmonised
short-term statistics on public finance.

Article 2

Categories concerned by the transmission of quarterly
data

Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat)
quarterly data for the following categories of general govern-
ment resources and uses, as codified in ESA 95:

on the resource side:
— taxes on production and imports (D.2)
— of which: value-added type taxes (D.211)
— current taxes on income, wealth, etc. (D.5)
— capital taxes (D.91)
— actual social contributions (D.611),

on the use side:
— social benefits other than social transfers in kind (D.62).

Article 3

Sources and methods to compile quarterly data

The compilation of quarterly data for the categories referred to
in Article 2 shall respect the following rules:

Taxes, actual social contributions and social benefits, as
the first set of components, will provide early warning
signals of possible risks to budgets and useful informa-
tion on cyclical developments in the economy.

1. quarterly data shall be based on direct information available
from basic sources, such as for example public accounts or
administrative sources, representing, for each category, at
last 90 % of the amount of the category;

(1) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 58, 27.2.1998, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 209, 2.8.1997, p. 1.

(4) OJ L 59, 6.3.1991, p. 19.
(5) OJ L 51, 1.3.1996, p. 48.
(6) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.

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2. direct information shall be completed by coverage adjust-
ments, if needed, and by conceptual adjustments in order to
bring quarterly data in line with ESA 95 concepts;

These Member States shall trasmit to the Commission
2.
(Eurostat) their ‘best quarterly estimates’ according to the time-
table described in Article 4.

3. the quarterly data and the corresponding annual data shall

be consistent.

Article 4

Timetable for the transmission of quarterly data

1.
Quarterly data shall be delivered to the Commission
(Eurostat) within a period which shall not exceed three months
from the end of the quarter to which the data relate.

Any revision of quarterly data for previous quarters shall

2.
be transmitted at the same time.

3.
The first transmission of quarterly data shall relate to data
for the first quarter of 2000. These data shall be delivered no
later than 30 June 2000.

Article 5

Transmission of time-series

1. Member States shall deliver to the Commission (Eurostat)
quarterly data for the categories referred to in Article 2 starting
from the first quarter of 1991.

Backwards data shall be compiled according to sources

2.
and methods specified in Article 3(2) and (3).

3.
Backwards data from the first quarter of 1998 until the
fourth quarter of 1999 shall be transmitted to the Commission
(Eurostat) no later than 31 December 2000.

4.
Backwards data from the first quarter of 1991 until the
fourth quarter of 1997 shall be transmitted to the Commission
(Eurostat) no later than 30 June 2002.

Article 6

Transitional provisions

Transitional provisions shall concern Member States who
1.
are not in the position to transmit, from 2000, quarterly data
according to the timetable described in Article 4(1) and
according to sources and methods specified in Article 3.

3.
They shall at the same time indicte which steps still need
to be accomplished in order to comply with the sources and
methods specified in Article 3.

4.
The period to which the transitional provisions refer shall
not exceed the timetable specified in the Annex to this Regula-
tion.

Article 7

Implementation of the Regulation

1. Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat)
with a description of the sources and methods used to compile
quarterly data (initial description), no later than March 2000.

2.
Any revision to the initial description of the sources and
methods used to compile quarterly data shall be provided by
Member States
to the Commission (Eurostat) when they
communicate the revised data.

3.
The initial description and the possible revisions shall be
subject to agreement between each Member State concerned
and the Commission (Eurostat).

4.
On the basis of the description(s) provided by Member
States, the Commission (Eurostat) shall examine in particular
the applicability of the 90 % criterion required in Article 3(1),
for the first quarterly estimate concerning each of the catego-
ries referred to in Article 2.

If if becomes apparent that a Member State is not able to meet
the 90 % criterion under its national conditions, the Commis-
sion (Eurostat) may grant a specific derogation to the Member
State concerned.

5.
The Commission (Eurostat) will keep the SPC and the
CMFB informed of the sources and methods used by each
Member State.

Article 8

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter
into force on the 20th day
following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities.

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

Done at Brussels, 3 February 2000.

For the Commission

Pedro SOLBES MIRA

Member of the Commission

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Timetable setting out the deadline for the application of the transitional provisions

ANNEX

Article 6(4)

Member State

Belgium

Denmark

Germany

Greece

Spain

France

Ireland

Italy

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Austria

Portugal

Finland

Sweden

United Kingdom

Taxes on production and
imports (D.2)
Current taxes on income,
wealth,etc. (D.5)
Capital taxes (D.91)

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002 (D.2)

1 January 2003 (D.5)

1 January 2003 (D.91)

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

Actual social contributions
(D.611)

Social benefits other than
social transfers in kind (D.62)

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2003

1 January 2003

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2003

1 January 2003

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2003

1 January 2003

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2003

1 January 2003

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002

1 January 2002