Commission Regulation (EC) No 224/2007 of 1 March 2007 amending Regulation (EC) No 1216/2003 as regards the economic activities covered by the labour cost index (Text with EEA relevance )
Date: 2007-03-01
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, data transmission, labour force, wage cost, wage indexing

2.3.2007

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 64/23

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 224/2007

of 1 March 2007

amending Regulation (EC) No 1216/2003 as regards the economic activities covered by the labour
cost index

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

(6)

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 450/2003 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 27 February 2003 concerning
the labour cost index (1), and in particular Article 11 thereof,

Whereas:

(7)

(8)

The index reference year is the year in which the average
of the index is set at 100. The first index reference year is
defined in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1216/2003
of 7 July 2003 implementing Regulation (EC) No
450/2003 of
the
Council concerning the labour costs index (2) as the
year 2000. Indices for NACE Rev. 1 sections L, M, N
and O may not be available for the year 2000 and an
alternative index reference should be defined.

the European Parliament and of

Regulation (EC) No 1216/2003 should therefore be
amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with
Statistical
the
Programme Committee,

opinion

the

of

A range of statistics, of which labour cost indices form
an essential part, is relevant for monitoring wage devel-
opments and inflationary pressures emanating from the
labour market.

The scope of the labour cost index should be extended to
cover the economic activities defined by NACE Rev. 1
sections L, M, N and O. This extension means that non-
market services, which account for the major share of
these sections and which may have different dynamics
from market services, will also be covered.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1216/2003 is amended as follows:

1. Article 4 is replaced by the following:

in accordance with
The feasibility studies carried out
Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 450/2003 show that
extending the scope of the labour cost index to include
the economic activities defined by NACE Rev. 1 sections
L, M, N and O is feasible and that the amount of work
and the costs which the extension of the labour cost
index will require is in proportion to the importance
of the results and benefits.

‘Article 4

Coverage of NACE Rev. 1 sections L, M, N, and O

As regards Member States other than those referred to
1.
in paragraph 2,
labour cost index data for NACE Rev. 1
sections L, M, N and O shall be produced and transmitted
for the first quarter of 2007 and thereafter for each quarter.

The feasibility studies also show that a flexible implemen-
tation schedule will reduce implementation costs for
those Member States which do not yet collect the basic
data or produce the indices covered by this extension.

2.
As regards the following Member States, the data shall
be produced and transmitted for the first quarter of 2009
and thereafter for each quarter: Belgium, Denmark, Greece,
Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta,
Spain, France,
Austria, Poland and Sweden.

Ireland,

Seasonal adjustment methods produce statistically reliable
sufficiently long.
results only if
Seasonally adjusted series should therefore be produced
and transmitted for the first time when four years of data
are available.

the time series

is

By way of exception to paragraphs 1 and 2, seasonally
3.
and working-day adjusted series as referred to in Article
1(2)(c) shall be produced and transmitted as soon as series
covering four years of data are available’;

(1) OJ L 69, 13.3.2003, p. 1.

(2) OJ L 169, 8.7.2003, p. 37.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

L 64/24

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

2.3.2007

2. Annex III is deleted;

3. Item 6 in Annex IV is replaced by the following:

‘6. The first index reference year shall be the year 2000,
when the annual
If
labour cost
indices for NACE sections L, M, N and O are not
available for the year 2000, the first available indices

index equals 100.

shall be set at a level close to the annual average of
NACE sections C to K.’

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day
following 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 Brussels, 1 March 2007.

For the Commission

Joaquín ALMUNIA
Member of the Commission