Regulation (EC) No 1624/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 July 2000 amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States, with specific reference to a simplified application of the nomenclature of products
Date: 2000-07-10
Institutions: Council of the European Union, European Parliament
Subjects: Combined Nomenclature, EU statistics, intra-EU trade, simplification of formalities, trading operation

26.7.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 187/1

I

(Acts whose publication is obligatory)

REGULATION (EC) No 1624/2000 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 10 July 2000

amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods
between Member States, with specific reference to a simplified application of the nomenclature of
products

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 95 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

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

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty (3),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

Under Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 (4),
the
Community and its Member States compile statistics
relating to the trading of goods between Member States
(‘Intrastat’) during the transitional period which began
on 1 January 1993 and will end on the date of change-
over to a unified system of taxation in the Member State
of origin.

The simplification of legislation for the internal market,
as formulated in the SLIM (Simpler Legislation for the
Internal Market) initiative, is intended to improve enter-
prises' competitiveness and job creation potential.

The simplification of
the Intrastat system has been
chosen as a SLIM pilot project, and specific proposals
drawn up by the SLIM-Intrastat Working Party for
reducing the burden on providers of statistical informa-
tion have been the subject of a communication to the
European Parliament and the Council and have been
welcomed by them.

(1) OJ C 245, 12.8.1997, p. 12 and C 164, 29.5.1998, p. 14.
(2) OJ C 19, 21.1.1998, p. 52.
(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 1 April 1998 (OJ C 138,
4.5.1998, p. 92), confirmed on 27 October 1999, and Council
Common Position of 28 February 2000 (OJ C 87, 24.3.2000, p.
11) and Decision of the European Parliament of 14 June 2000.
(4) OJ L 316, 16.11.1991, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regula-

tion (EC) No 1182/1999 (OJ L 144, 9.6.1999, p. 1).

(4)

(5)

The simplified application of the product nomenclature
is one such proposal, since information providers gener-
ally regard the classification of products as difficult.

It is important to simplify the combined nomenclature
to be used on a uniform basis in both intra-Community
and external trade, so as to make it easier to apply the
system — in particular for small and medium-sized
in this context the results of the ongoing
enterprises;
discussions conducted by the Commission with Member
States and European trade and industry organisations in
the SLIM framework should be taken into account,
preserving the principle of one single nomenclature.

(6)

The use of simplification thresholds is an efficient tool
to reduce the burdens of declaration on businesses, in
particular the SMEs,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

In Article 28(5) of Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 the first
subparagraph shall be replaced by the following:

shall

exempt

thresholds

Simplification

‘5.
parties
required to provide information from the full provisions of
Article 23; these parties need only report in the declara-
tions referred to in Article 13(1) a maximum of ten of the
finest relevant subheadings of the combined nomenclature
that are the most important in terms of value and shall
regroup the other products
subheadings
according to detailed arrangements to be determined by the
Commission pursuant to Article 30. For each of the afore-
mentioned subheadings,
in addition to the code number
referred to in the second indent of Article 21, the Member
State of consignment or destination and the value of the
goods need to be stated.’

in residual

L 187/2

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

26.7.2000

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

It shall apply from 1 January 2001.

Article 2

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

Done at Brussels, 10 July 2000.

For the European Parliament

The President

N. FONTAINE

For the Council

The President

H. VÉDRINE