Communication from the EFTA Surveillance Authority concerning derogations by Norway from the provisions of the Act referred to at point 1 of Annex XXI to the EEA Agreement, Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 2056/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 November 2002
Date: 2005-05-05
Institutions: EFTA Surveillance Authority
Subjects: EFTA, European Economic Area, Norway, business policy, competitiveness, derogation from EU law, economic statistics

5.5.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 110/19

EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA

EFTA SURVEILLANCE AUTHORITY

Communication from the EFTA Surveillance Authority concerning derogations by Norway from
the provisions of the Act referred to at point 1 of Annex XXI to the EEA Agreement, Council
Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics,
as amended by Regulation (EC) No 2056/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5
November 2002

(2005/C 110/09)

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics,
as adapted by way of Protocol 1 to the EEA Agreement and referred to at point 1 of Annex XXI thereto
(hereinafter ‘the Act’), established a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and
evaluation of statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the
European Economic Area. Article 11 of the Act provides that derogations from the provisions of the
Annexes thereto may be accepted during a transitional period.

Regulation (EC) No 2056/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 November 2002 has
been incorporated into point 1 of Annex XXI to the EEA Agreement by EEA Joint Committee Decision No
58/2003 (OJ L 193, 31.7.2003, p. 42). Regulation (EC) No 2056/2002 amended the Act, thereby
extending the common framework to credit institutions, pension funds, other financial intermediation and
activities auxiliary to financial intermediation. Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 2056/2002 added to the
Act the text of Annex 7 on a detailed module for structural statistics on pension funds.

The EFTA Surveillance Authority is entrusted with the task of accepting derogations in accordance with
Article 11 of the Act as regards applications from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Norway has asked for derogations from certain characteristics of Section 4 of Annex 7 to the Act in
respect of pension funds, assets and residual data for the reference years 2002 to 2004 in order to adapt
the national statistical system to the requirements of Annex 7 thereto.

The EFTA Surveillance Authority granted those derogations, in accordance with the opinion of the EFTA
Heads of National Statistical Institutes Assisting the EFTA Surveillance Authority, as follows:

Table: Derogation request for characteristics of Section 4 of Annex 7 to the Act

Annual enterprise
statistics
2002 to 2004

Title

Complete, partial or no derogation

Partial derogation

Extra transmission period needed

None

Title

Annual enterprise
statistics broken down
2002 to 2004

Partial derogation

None

Missing variables

48 00 5

48 00 6

48 00 7

Pension contributions to defined bene-
fits schemes

Pension contributions to defined bene-
fits schemes

Pension contributions to hybrid
schemes

C 110/20

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

5.5.2005

Annual enterprise
statistics
2002 to 2004

Title

Annual enterprise
statistics broken down
2002 to 2004

Title

48 03 1
48 03 2
48 13 1
48 13 2

48 13 3
48 13 4

48 70 1

48 70 2

48 70 3

48 70 5

None

Regular pensions payments
Pension payments of lump sums
Quoted shares
Shares quoted on an exchange market
specialises in SMEs
Unquoted shares
Other shares and other variable yield
securities
Number of members of defined bene-
fits schemes
Number of members of defined contri-
bution schemes
Number of members of hybride
schemes
Number of deferred members

None

Other parts