Amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community Statistics in Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty)
Date: 2002-11-15
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, household, income, living conditions

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 15.11.2002
COM(2002) 641 final

2001/0293 (COD)

Amended proposal for a

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

concerning Community Statistics in Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)

(presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty)

2001/0293 (COD)

Amended proposal for a

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

concerning Community Statistics in Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)

1.

BACKGROUND

13  December  2001:Transmission  of  the  proposal  to  the  Council  and  to  the  European
Parliament (COM(2001) 754 final – 2001/0293(COD))

24 April 2002:Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee

14 May 2002:Opinion of the European Parliament – first reading

2.

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL

Statistics  on  income  and  living  conditions  and,  more  precisely,  indicators  on  poverty  and
social exclusion have been requested at high political level. Articles 136, 137 and 285 of the
Treaty establishing the  European  Community refer  to  the necessity for  Statistics on income,
living  conditions  and  social  exclusion.  Furthermore,  the  conclusions  of  the  Lisbon
(23-24/3/2000),  Nice  (7-9/12/2000),  Stockholm  (23-24/3/2001)  and  Laeken  (14-15/12/2001)
European Councils have strong support to the eradication of poverty and invited the Council
and  the  Commission  to  promote  a  better  understanding  of  social  exclusion  on  the  basis  of
commonly agreed indicators capable of measuring progress.

It is in this context that the Commission has developed the "Programme of Community action
to encourage co-operation between Member States to combat social exclusion" to promote the
"collection  and  dissemination  of  comparable  statistics  in  Member  States  and  at  Community
level". The European Commission's Communication COM(2000) 594 on Structural Indicators
follows the same direction.

For  the  1994-2001  period,  the  European  Community  Household  Panel  (ECHP)  survey  was
used to fulfil these political needs. But in view of the need to update the content according to
the  new  political  demands,  and  of  the  request  for  operational  improvement,  i.e.  mainly  the
timeliness  of  the  produced  data,  the  launching  of  the  EU-SILC  (Statistics  on  Income  and
Living Conditions) project was decided in June 2000.

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3.

COMMISSION OPINION ON THE AMENDMENTS ADOPTED BY THE PARLIAMENT

3.1.

Amendments accepted by the Commission

The  Commission  agrees  to  take  into  account  in  its  modified  proposal  the  amendments
number 1  (on  recital  2),  4  (annex  I,  part  1  (household  information),  area  'gross  income
components  at  household  level  including  gross  employee  and  self-employment  income
(monetary and non-monetary), gross employers’ social insurance contributions, imputed rent,
property income, current transfers paid/received, other gross income and interests payments'),
5  (annex  I,  part  1  (household  information),  area  ‘Housing  and  other  arrears’),  6  (annex  I,
part 1 (household information), area 'non-monetary deprivation indicators including problems
in making ends meet, extend of debt and enforced lack of basic necessities'), 8 (annex I, part 1
(household  information),  area  'Dwelling  type,  tenure  status  and  housing  conditions'),
11 (annex  I,  part  2  (personal  information),  area  ‘Other  current  job(s)’),  12  (annex  I,  part  2
(personal information), area 'health (overall status and chronic illness or condition)') adopted
by the European Parliament in its plenary session on 14 May 2002.

3.2.

Amendments accepted in part or principle by the Commission

Amendment number 2 (on Article 2 (l) Definition of gross income)

The  Commission  can  accept 
the  following
rewording:‘total gross income covers the total monetary and non-monetary income received
by the household over a specific income reference period'.

in  principle  amendment  2  subject 

to 

Amendment  number  3  (in  Annex  I,  part  1  (household  information),  area  'Basic  Household
data including information on local area')

The  Commission  can  accept 
rewording:'Basic household data including information on the degree of urbanisation'.

in  principle  amendment  3  subject 

to 

the  following

Amendment number 7 (in Annex I, part 1 (household information), area 'Physical and social
environment (crime, pollution and noise)')

the  following
The  Commission  can  accept 
rewording:‘Physical  and  social  environment  including  problems  with  the  accommodation,
insecurity, pollution, noise’.

in  principle  amendment  7  subject 

to 

Amendment number 10 (in Annex  I, part 2 (personal information), areas  'Basic information
on  current  activity  status  and  on  current  main  job'.  'Basic  information  on  activity  status
during income reference period')

The Commission can accept in principle  amendment  10  subject  to  the  following rewording:
'Basic information on current main activity status and on current main job’ and 'Basic cross-
sectional information on activity status during income reference period'.

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3.3.

Amendments not accepted by the Commission

Amendment  number  9  (in  Annex  I,  part  2  (personal  information),  area  'Education  (ISCED
classification)' and ‘Parental education (ISCED classification)’)

The Commission agrees to specify that ISCED classification is covered in the education area
but does not want to include the parental education.

4.

CONCLUSION

Having  regard  to  Article  250,  paragraph  2,  of  the  EC  Treaty,  the  Commission  modifies  its
proposal for the SILC Regulation as indicated above.

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