WRITTEN QUESTION E-1020/01 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Exports of goods and services.
Date: 2001-03-30
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, Eurostat, access to information, balance of payments, economic statistics, export, goods and services

4.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 340 E/149

(2001/C 340 E/167)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1020/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(30 March 2001)

Subject: Exports of goods and services

1. Will the Commission state which EU Member States currently provide a geographical analysis of
their exports of goods and services?

2.
For those Member States which do so, will the Commission provide the figures for the exports of
goods and services in total and to the euro area and to the rest of the world respectively for the last ten
years or, should that not be possible, for the longest period for which figures are available?

3. Will it further express such figures as a percentage of each country(cid:146)s GDP for the period in question?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(27 June 2001)

Nowadays in the framework of the Balance of Payments statistics, all Member States provide Eurostat
balance of payments data with a Geographical breakdown of at least level-1 (World, 15 Member States
(EU15), Extra-EU15, Canada, United States, Japan, World non allocated, Euro zone, Extra-euro zone). This
data is necessary for the compilation of the European (EU15 and euro zone) balance of payments
aggregates. Time series with geographical breakdown vis-(cid:224)-vis intra-euro zone and extra-euro zone start
from 1995 with reporters only the Member States of the euro zone (Ireland(cid:146)s contribution starts from
1999). This implies that
for Denmark, Greece, Sweden and the United Kingdom data with this
geographical split (intra and extra euro zone) is not available. Time series with geographical breakdown
vis-(cid:224)-vis World, Intra-EU 15 and Extra-EU 15 start from 1992 with reporters all the Member States.

Eurostat is responsible for the compilation of the Balance of Payments (BoP) of the Community while the
European Central Bank (ECB) is responsible for the compilation of the euro zone Balance of Payments
aggregates. It has been decided by the ECB and the Member States that the contribution of Member States
for the compilation of the euro zone BoP aggregates (intra-euro zone and extra-euro zone) should not be
published. As ECB is solely responsible for these figures, they can only be directly requested from the ECB.
The contribution of Member States for the compilation of EU 15 aggregates (world,
intra-EU15 and
Extra EU-15) is available at Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) upon request.

An Excel file with the available information is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s
Secretariat.

(2001/C 340 E/168)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1022/01

by Ioannis Souladakis (PSE) to the Commission

(30 March 2001)

Subject: Relations between India and Pakistan

The perverse decisions taken recently by the Afghan government have highlighted the permanently
strained relations between India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir. Since border disputes between the
two countries have remained unresolved for a number of decades and the neighbouring countries
China and Afghanistan have been involved either directly or indirectly, the conflict between India and
Pakistan has all the makings of a major international flashpoint.