WRITTEN QUESTION E-0129/01 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Financial services.
Date: 2001-01-31
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, European accounting system, gross national product

18.9.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 261 E/43

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(15 May 2001)

With regard to compensation of employees, the requests to the Member States in connection with the
action plan concerning the statistics required for EMU (European Commission (cid:129) Eurostat (cid:129) in close
collaboration with the European Central Bank) are the same as for the data on gross domestic product
(GDP) and employment (and productivity), as already stated in the answer to the honourable Member(cid:146)s
question E-3426/00 (1) on these aggregates.

The Commission action plan to improve the quality and especially the timeliness of national accounts data
(GDP, GNP and its sub-aggregates) was adopted by the Council in September 2000. The Commission must
now implement this action plan (see also answers to the honourable Member(cid:146)s questions E-3426/00 and
E-0138/01 (2)).

In response to the Council action plan, the Member States devised national action plans outlining the
arrangements and schedule for carrying out the Council plan. In general, a lot of progress has been made
in providing GDP data for most of the Member States (see also the Council(cid:146)s third progress report of
19 January 2001), although some countries are still encountering some problems.

As for the situation regarding Greece, Luxembourg and Ireland, the Commission does not yet have any
accurate information about when these Member States will be in a position to comply with the action plan
with regard to GDP data as well as for data on employment (and thus also producitivity).

This will be defined as part of a proposal for a Council regulation on the matter, which is due to be
submitted shortly by the Commission and which will replace the existing Council Regulation (EC) No
2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (3),
in which there is provision for these Member States to be granted derogations.

(1) OJ C 151 E, 22.5.2001, p. 166.
(2) OJ C 187 E, 3.7.2001, p. 193.
(3) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996.

(2001/C 261 E/044)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0129/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(31 January 2001)

Subject: Financial services

1. Will the Commission please indicate the share of GDP generated by financial services in each
Member State in each year for the last ten years?

2. Will it indicate any particular methodological inconsistencies between the measurement of financial
services in the Member States and any particular difficulties in assessing the value added in this sector?

3. Will it give the comparable figures for the United States and Japan?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(7 May 2001)

The data requested by the Honourable Member are part of the National Accounts, a statistical domain
structured by a methodological standard called the European Standard of Integrated Economic Accounts
(ESA).

The data indicating the share of GDP generated by financial services in each Member State in each of the
last ten years are sent directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat.

There are no particular methodological
States are based on the ESA.

inconsistencies because the National Accounts of the Member

There are no derogations relating to the definitions of the concepts.

C 261 E/44

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.9.2001

There are two versions of ESA. The new ESA (ESA 95) applies from 1999 and replaces the previous
version (ESA 79) ranging from 1970 to 1997. It extended the concept of financial services: the production
of insurance other than life insurance now includes income from the investment of insurance technical
reserves.

The value added in this sector is composed of commissions and fees explicitly invoiced to the customers
and the difference between interests charged on loans and interests paid on deposits, called Financial
Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM). Measuring the commissions and fees is rather easy
because it is based on accounting, while measuring the FISIM is somewhat more complex.

The data for the United States and Japan are consistent with ESA 79 and are sent directly to the
Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat.

(2001/C 261 E/045)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0132/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(31 January 2001)

Subject: Employees

How many full time and part-time employees have been employed by the Commission in each year

1.
for the last ten years?

How many self-employed people held short-term contracts with the Commission in each year for the

2.
last ten years?

3. What proportion of the total complement of the EU institutions(cid:146) staff was constituted by Commi-
ssion staff in each year for the last ten years?

4. What proportion of Commission staff were involved in interpretation and translation (specifying each
separately) in each year for the last ten years?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(26 March 2001)

On December, 31 of each year, the Commission employed:

Year

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

Full time employees
(officials and temporay staff)

Part-time employees
(officials and temporary staff)

15 542

15 910

16 260

16 833

17 607

18 315

18 903

19 218

19 065

19 075

515

547

594

636

627

679

767

825

923

1 074

Total (1)

16 057

16 457

16 854

17 469

18 234

18 994

19 670

20 043

19 988

20 149

(1)

Total of employed persons (officials and temporary staff) = full time + part-time employees.

The table comprises the officials and temporary staff in active employment, all budgets mixed (Adminis-
tration, Research and Technological Development, Office for Official Publications and the European Anti-
Fraud Office (OLAF)).