WRITTEN QUESTION E-0128/01 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Timeliness of economic statistics.
Date: 2001-01-31
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: action programme, disclosure of information, national accounts

C 261 E/42

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.9.2001

By treating wood from temperate zones with different processes such as platonising and acetylation it is
possible to preserve them without using toxic substances. Boreal wood treated in this way is just as strong
as tropical hardwood. These processes are becoming increasingly common on the European market.

Is the Commission prepared to give serious consideration to this substitution method and (cid:129) should it
prove satisfactory (cid:129) to apply it and to ban impregnating salts from the European market?

(1) OJ L 123, 24.4.1998, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallstr(cid:246)m on behalf of the Commission

(30 March 2001)

Directive 98/8/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 concerning the placing of
biocidal products on the markets (1) envisages an authorisation procedure for all biocidal products
including wood preservatives. Under Commission Regulation 1896/2000 of 7 September 2000 on the
first phase of the programme referred to in Article 16(2) of Directive 98/8/EC of the Parliament and of the
Council on biocidal products (2) active substances of wood preservatives will be in the first group of
substances to be evaluated in the framework of the Directive. Complete dossiers on supported active
substances are to be submitted to the competent authorities by 28 March 2004 at the latest.

On this basis the risks arising from each active substance will be evaluated and only substances posing no
unacceptable risks will be included in Annex I to the Directive and thereby allowed to be placed on the
market and used for biocidal purposes.

Furthermore, an active substance not deemed unacceptable but which still gives rise to concern will be a
candidate for comparative assessment as laid down in Article 10(5) of the Directive. Under this procedure
such a substance might be denied entry into Annex I if another active substance presenting significantly
less risk to health or the environment is included in Annex I.

The Directive also obliges Member States to prescribe that biocidal products shall be properly used,
including the rational application of a combination of physical, biological, chemical or other measures as
appropriate, whereby the use of biocidal products is limited to the minimum necessary.

The Commission will take its responsibilities under the Directive seriously and all its proposals including
those based on wood preservatives, will be based fully on the requirements of the Directive.

(1) OJ L 123, 24.4.1998.
(2) OJ L 228, 8.9.2000.

(2001/C 261 E/043)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0128/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(31 January 2001)

Subject: Timeliness of economic statistics

Further to the Commission(cid:146)s answer to Written Question E-3426/00 (1) on 22 December 2000, will

1.
the Commission please provide information concerning earnings data, as requested in that question?

2. Will the Commission also state what undertakings, if any, it has received from Greece, Ireland and
Luxembourg that
their GDP, employment and
improve the regularity and frequency of
productivity figures?

they will

(1) OJ C 151 E, 22.5.2001, p. 166.

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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.