Amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on the Information Society (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty)
Date: 2004-03-30
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, data collection, information society

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 30.3.2004 
COM(2004) 216 final 

2003/0199 (COD) 

Amended proposal for a 

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

concerning statistics on the Information Society 

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

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
  
 
2003/0199 (COD) 

Amended proposal for a 

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

concerning statistics on the Information Society 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

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25  August  2003:  Adoption  by  the  Commission  and  transmission  of  the 
proposal  to  the  Council  and  to  the  European  Parliament  (COM(2003)  509  – 
2003/0199(COD)) 

The Council Working Group ‘Statistics’ discussed the Commission proposal at 
meetings between 8 October and 11 December 2003. 

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29 January 2004: Opinion of the European Parliament – first reading. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The Commission proposal on a European Parliament and Council Regulation on statistics on 
the  Information  Society  is  based  on  Article  285  (1)  in  accordance  with  the  procedure  laid 
down  in  Article  251  (2)  of  the  EC  Treaty.  The  European  Council  in  Seville  in  June  2002 
called for a legal basis to ensure regular and comparable data provision in Member States and 
enable  greater  use  of  official  statistics  on  the  information  society.  The  proposed  regulation 
provides  that  basis  for  National  Statistical  Institutes  to  present  the  statistics  needed  for  the 
Structural  Indicators  and  the  eEurope  benchmarking  process,  while  at  the  same  time  being 
flexible  enough  to  respond  to  new  needs.  It  sets  up  a  framework  for  a  flexible  system  of 
statistics  on  the  information  society  through  surveys  on  ICT  usage  in  enterprises  and  in 
households and by individuals. Two annexes define the respective modules which will later 
be implemented by a Commission Regulation. Both the framework regulation and its annexes 
have  been  drawn  up  after  extensive  consultation  with  Member  States  and  are  limited  in 
duration in order not to create any permanent statistical burden. 

3. 

COMMISSION OPINION ON THE AMENDMENTS ADOPTED BY THE PARLIAMENT 

Amendments accepted by the Commission 

The Commission agrees to take into account in its modified proposal all amendments adopted 
by the European Parliament in its plenary session on 29 January 2004. 

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Editorial changes for clarification : 

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Amendment no 1 on recital 8: 

Editorial  change  of  the  recital  to  be  in  line  with  amendment  no  7  on  Article  8 
paragraph 2. 

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Amendment no 2 on recital 11: 

Editorial change for better understanding. 

Amendment no 3 on article 1:  

Editorial change for better understanding. 

Amendment no 4 on article 3 paragraph 1: 

Editorial  change  to  official  language,  and  for  clarification  to  distinguish  between 
mandatory  requirements  for  the  eEurope  benchmarking  process  and  less  strict 
requirements for Structural Indicators. 

Amendment no 5 on article 5: 

Editorial change to make the goal of the manual more explicit. 

Amendment no 6 on article 6 paragraph 1: 

Editorial  change  to  clarify  that  only  aggregate  data  shall  be  transmitted  under  this 
Regulation. 

Amendment no 7 on article 8 paragraph 3: 

Editorial change for clarification. 

Amendment no 8 on article 9: 

Editorial change in line with interinstitutional agreement. 

Amendment no 9 on article 10: 

Editorial change for clarification. 

Amendment no 11 on annex 1, point c), d): 

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Point c): editorial change for clarification; 

Point d): editorial change to underline the principle already expressed in c) for 
the characteristics. 

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Amendment no 14 on annex 2, point c) and d): 

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Point c): editorial change for clarification; 

Point d): editorial change to underline the principle already expressed in c) for 
the characteristics. 

Other changes 

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Amendment no 7 on article 8:  

Paragraph  1:  to  sharpen  the  scope  for  the  implementing  measure;  paragraph  2:  to 
ensure quality of results. 

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Amendment no 11 on annex 1 point e): 

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The  restriction  to  three  regions  will  not  hamper  the  process  of  developing 
Information Society statistics over the set time frame. 

Amendment no 10 on annex 1, point a) and Amendment no 13 on annex 2 point 
a): 

For clarification the amended text is introducing a comprehensive summary on what 
is expected from the module. 

Amendment  no  12  on  annex  1,  point  ea)  and  Amendment  no  15  on  annex  2, 
point ea) new: 

The Commission would have preferred not to regulate the execution of pilot studies 
but can accept the proposal, as it will contribute to ensuring the quality of the results. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

Having  regard  to  Article  250,  paragraph  2,  of  the  EC  Treaty,  the  Commission  modifies  its 
proposal  for  the  Regulation  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  concerning 
statistics on the Information Society as indicated above. 

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