Common Position (EC) No 16/2004 of 22 December 2003 adopted by the Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, with a view to adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly financial accounts for general government (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2003-12-22
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: European accounting system, account, data collection, exchange of information, public administration

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COMMON POSITION (EC) No 16/2004

adopted by the Council on 22 December 2003

with a view to the adoption of a Regulation (EC) No . . ./2004 of the European Parliament and of
the Council of . . . on quarterly financial accounts for general government

(2004/C 72 E/04)

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 285 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank (1),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty (2),

Whereas:

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on
the European system of national and regional accounts in
the Community (3) contains the reference framework of
and
common
definitions,
the
accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of
the
for
Member States
requirements of
Community,
results
in order
between Member States.

to obtain comparable

the statistical

classifications

standards,

(2) The report by the Monetary Committee on information
requirements, endorsed by the ECOFIN Council on 18
January 1999, underlined that, for the proper functioning
of Economic and Monetary Union and the single market,
effective surveillance and coordination of economic policies
are of major importance and that this requires a compre-
hensive statistical
information system providing policy-
makers with the necessary data on which to base their
decisions. That report also stated that high priority should
be given to short-term public finance statistics for Member
States,
in particular those participating in Economic and
Monetary Union, and that the objective was the compi-
accounts
government
quarterly
lation
following a step-by-step approach.

financial

of

(3) Quarterly national data of financial accounts (transactions
and balance sheets) for the government sector make up a
large proportion of all financial transactions and financial
balance sheets in the euro area and provide important
information to support the conduct of monetary policy.
In this respect and for its own purpose the Governing
Council of the European Central Bank has adopted regu-
lations and guidelines to safeguard the transmission of
and national
infra-annual data on financial
financial accounts to the European Central Bank.

statistics

(4) Counterpart sector information on government

transactions and balance sheets
comprehensive
financial
instrument.

investment by

analysis of government

counterpart

is

financial
required to enable
financing and
by
and

sector

to short-term public

(5) Commission Regulation (EC) No 264/2000 of 3 February
2000 on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No
finance
2223/96 with respect
statistics (4) and Regulation (EC) No 1221/2002 of
the
European Parliament and of the Council, of 10 June 2002
on
general
government (5) specify the non-financial quarterly data for
general government
to be transmitted to the
is
Commission (Eurostat) by Member States.

non-financial

quarterly

accounts

that

for

(6) Articles 2 and 3 of Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 lay down
the conditions under which the Commission may adopt
amendments to the methodology of the European System
of Accounts in order to clarify and improve its contents.
The compilation of government quarterly financial accounts
will require additional resources in Member States, and
cannot therefore be dealt with by a Commission Decision
but should rather be adopted by a specific Regulation of the
European Parliament and of the Council.

(7) The Statistical Programme Committee (SPC) set up by
Council Decision 89/382/EEC,
the
Committee on Monetary,
and Balance of
Payments Statistics (CMFB) set up by Council Decision
91/115/EEC (7), declared themselves in favour of the draft
of this Regulation,

Euratom (6),

Financial

and

(1) OJ C 165, 16.7.2003, p. 6.
(2) Opinion of the European Parliament of 21 October 2003 (not yet
published in the Official Journal), Council Common Position of 22
December 2003 and Position of the European Parliament of . . .
(not yet published in the Official Journal).

(3) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regu-
lation (EC) No 1267/2003 of the European Parliament and of the
Council (OJ L 180, 18.7.2003, p. 1).

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

(4) OJ L 29, 4.2.2000, p. 4.
(5) OJ L 179, 9.7.2002, p. 1.
(6) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.
(7) OJ L 59, 6.3.1991, p. 19. Decision as amended by Decision

96/174/EC (OJ L 51, 1.3.1996, p. 48).

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Article 1

Purpose

(g)

long-term loans (F.42 and AF.42);

(h) shares and other equity (F.5 and AF.5);

The purpose of this Regulation is to list and define the main
characteristics of the European System of Accounts (ESA 95)
categories of financial transactions and of financial assets and
liabilities for the general government sector and for each of the
sub-sectors within general government, to be transmitted to the
step-by-step
Commission (Eurostat) quarterly following a
approach.

Article 2

Compilation of quarterly data: sources and methods

1. With a view to achieving high-quality statistics, quarterly
data for financial
transactions and for financial assets and
liabilities shall be based as far as possible on information
government. However,
directly
quarterly data on unquoted shares (AF.512) and other equity
(AF.513), as defined and codified in ESA 95 and held by
general government units, may be estimated by interpolating
and extrapolating information on the respective annual data.

available within general

2.
trans-
The compilation of quarterly data for financial
actions and for financial assets and liabilities shall comply
with the ESA 95 rules, especially concerning the sectoral classi-
fication of institutional units, consolidation rules, the classifi-
cation of
transactions and financial assets and
liabilities, the time of recording, and valuation rules.

financial

The quarterly data and the corresponding annual data
3.
transmitted to the Commission in accordance with Regulation
(EC) No 2223/96 shall be mutually consistent.

4.
The quarterly data on financial assets and liabilities are
the outstanding amounts of financial assets and liabilities at the
end of each quarter.

Article 3

Transmission of quarterly data on financial transactions,
financial assets and liabilities

shall

1. Member States
to the Commission
(Eurostat) quarterly data on financial transactions (F) and on
financial assets and liabilities (AF)
for the following list of
instruments as defined and codified in ESA 95:

transmit

(a) monetary gold and special drawing rights (SDRs) (F.1 and

AF.1);

(b) currency and deposits (F.2 and AF.2);

(c) short-term securities other than shares, excluding financial

derivatives (F.331 and AF.331);

(d)

long-term securities other than shares, excluding financial
derivatives (F.332 and AF.332);

(e)

financial derivatives (F.34 and AF.34);

(f)

short-term loans (F.41 and AF.41);

(i) net equity of households in life insurance reserves and in

pension fund reserves (F.61 and AF.61);

(j) prepayments of

insurance premiums and reserves

for

outstanding claims (F.62 and AF.62);

(k) other accounts receivable/payable (F.7 and AF.7).

2. Member States shall also transmit to the Commission
(Eurostat) quarterly data for the central government sub-sector
(S.1311) as referred to in Article 4 as follows:

(a) quoted shares (F.511 and AF.511), in respect of financial

asset transactions and financial assets;

(b) currency (F.21 and AF.21),

in respect of

liability trans-

actions and liabilities.

Article 4

Coverage of the general government sector and
sub-sectors

Member States shall transmit quarterly data for the general
government sector and its sub-sectors as defined and codified
in ESA 95, as General government (S.13), comprising:

— central government (S.1311)

— state government (S.1312)

— local government (S.1313)

— social security funds (S.1314).

Article 5

Nature of the quarterly data covered by the transmission

1.
Quarterly data as referred to in Article 3 shall be trans-
mitted on a consolidated basis for the general government
sub-sectors as referred to in Article 4.

2.
Quarterly data as referred to in Article 3 shall be trans-
mitted on both a consolidated and a non-consolidated basis for
the general government sector (S.13) as referred to in Article 4.

Quarterly data with breakdown by counterpart sector
3.
shall be provided for
the sub-sectors central government
(S.1311) and social security funds (S.1314) as referred to in
Article 4 and described in the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 6

Timetable for the transmission of quarterly data

1.
Quarterly data as referred to in Articles 3, 4 and 5 shall
be transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) at the latest by
three months after the end of the quarter to which the data
relate.

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Any revision of quarterly data for previous quarters shall

2.
be transmitted at the same time.

3.
The first transmission of quarterly data as referred to in
Articles 3, with the exception of other accounts receivable/
payable (F.7 and AF.7), 4 and 5 shall be made in accordance
with the following timetable:

(a)

for the central government sub-sector (S.1311) and for the
social security funds sub-sector (S.1314), no later than 30
June 2004; the Commission may grant a derogation, not
exceeding 18 months, for the starting date of transmission
of data with breakdown by counterpart sector and of some
transactions and financial assets and
data on financial
liabilities,
in so far as the national statistical systems
require major adaptations;

(b) for the state government (S.1312) and local government

(S.1313) sub-sectors:

(i) no later than 30 June 2004 for the transactions in
liabilities and liabilities as detailed under Article 3(1);
the Commission may grant a derogation, not exceeding
18 months, for the starting date of transmission of
those data, in so far as the national statistical systems
require major adaptations;

(ii) no later than 30 June 2005 for the transactions in
financial assets and assets as detailed under Article
3(1);
the Commission may grant a derogation, not
exceeding six months, for the starting date of trans-
mission of those data, in so far as the national statistical
systems require major adaptations;

(c)

for the general government sector (S.13), no later than 30
June 2005; the Commission may grant a derogation, not
exceeding six months, for the starting date of transmission
of those data, in so far as the national statistical systems
require major adaptations.

4.
The first transmission to the Commission (Eurostat) of
quarterly data for other accounts receivable/payable (F.7 and
AF.7) and for the general government sector (S.13) and its
sub-sectors as referred to in Article 4 shall be no later than
30 June 2005. The Commission may grant a derogation, not
exceeding six months, for the starting date of transmission of
those data,
insofar as the national statistical systems require
major adaptations.

Article 7

Provisions relating to back data

1.
Quarterly data as referred to in Article 6 shall cover back
data for financial transactions from the first quarter of 1999
and financial balance sheets from the fourth quarter of 1998 in
accordance with the timetable specified in Article 6(3) and (4)
for the first transmission of data.

2. Where necessary, back data may be based on ‘best
estimates’, respecting in particular the provisions of Article
2(2) and (3).

Article 8

Implementation

1. Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat)
with a description of the sources and methods used to compile
the quarterly data referred to in Article 3 (initial description),
when they first start to transmit quarterly data in accordance
with the timetable referred to in Article 6(3) and (4).

2. Member States shall inform the Commission (Eurostat) of
any changes to this initial description when they communicate
the revised data.

The Commission (Eurostat)

shall keep the Statistical
3.
on
the Committee
and
Programme Committee
Monetary,
and Balance of Payments Statistics
(CMFB) informed of the sources and methods used by each
Member State.

Financial

(SPC)

Article 9

Report

On the basis of the transmission of data referred to in Articles
3, 4, and 5, and after consulting the SPC and the CMFB, the
Commission shall, by 31 December 2005 at the latest, submit
to the European Parliament
report
containing an assessment of the reliability of the quarterly
data delivered by Member States.

and the Council a

Article 10

Entry into force

into force on the 20th day
This Regulation shall enter
following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Union.

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

Done at . . .

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

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ANNEX

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STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. On 13 May 2003, the Commission forwarded to the Council a proposal for a Regulation of the
European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly financial accounts for general government.

2. The proposal is based on Article 285 of the Treaty according to which the procedure of co-decision

with the European Parliament prescribed in Article 251 of the Treaty applies.

3. The European Central Bank adopted its Opinion on 8 July 2003.

4. The European Parliament adopted on 21 October 2003 a legislative Resolution proposing two

amendments to the Commission's proposal.

5. On 22 December 2003, the Council adopted its common position pursuant to Article 251 of the

Treaty.

II. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL

The proposal provides for a harmonised framework for the provision of quarterly data on the financial
accounts of general government. Alongside the Regulation on quarterly non-financial accounts for
general government (1), it provides for extensive data on financial and non-financial developments in
the government sector, facilitating improved economic policy analysis at both euro area and EU level.

These objectives fall within the scope of the EMU Statistics Action Plan.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

The Council's common position amends the Commission proposal only in Article 6, in respect of the
timetable for the transmission of quarterly data. These amendments are made to accommodate those
Member States whose statistical systems will require major adaptations in order to provide the data
required by the Regulation. The amendments are supported by the Commission.

In paragraphs 3 a) and b)i), the date of 30 June 2004 is included as the deadline for the first trans-
mission of quarterly data. This further postponement of the first transmission (adding a further six
months to that suggested by the European Parliament) reflects the timetable for adoption of the
Regulation.

In paragraphs 3 a) and b)i), the maximum derogations allowed are reduced from two years to 18
months, in light of the six month delay in the first transmission.

In paragraph 3 a), the Council has included in the scope of the derogation some data on financial
transactions and financial assets and liabilities.

In paragraphs 3 b)ii), 3 c) and 4, the Council has introduced a possibility for the Commission to grant a
derogation not exceeding six months for the data referred to in these paragraphs.

IV. CONCLUSION

The Council considers that the modifications introduced in its common position are fully in line with
the objectives of the proposed Regulation. They provide for the absolute minimum of derogations
necessary for the implementation of the Regulation in all Member States, while ensuring that the
quality of data is not significantly adversely affected.

(1) Regulation (EC) No 1221/2002 of 10 June 2002 (OJ L 179, 9.7.2002, p. 1).