REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2009/42/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea
Date: 2015-07-28
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: carriage of goods, data collection, delegated legislation, delegation of power, maritime transport, statistics, transport statistics

EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION 

Brussels, 28.7.2015  
COM(2015) 362 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission 
pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council amending Directive 2009/42/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of 
goods and passengers by sea 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
 
  
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 

THE COUNCIL 

on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission 
pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council amending Directive 2009/42/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of 
goods and passengers by sea 

1.  

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council1 was adopted 
with two main purposes – to bring data collection on goods transported by maritime transport 
into line with that for goods transported by other forms of transport, and to align the powers 
conferred  on  the  Commission  by  Directive  2009/42/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of 
the Council2 with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.  

The Regulation therefore: 

1.  introduced the requirement for Member States to provide data on seaborne transport 
in  the  main  European  ports  by  type  of  goods,  in  accordance  with  the  NST  2007 
classification,3  thus  bringing    data  collection  on  goods  transported  by  maritime 
transport  into  line  with  the  approaches  and  standards  used  for  statistics  on  road 
transport, rail transport and inland waterway transport; and 

2.  aligned  the  powers  conferred  on  the  Commission  by  Directive  2009/42/EC  with 

Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 

Directive  2009/42/EC  empowers  the  Commission  to  adopt  delegated  acts  serving  the 
following purposes: 

•  adapting  the  data  collection  requirements  set  out  in  Annexes  I  to  VIII  to  reflect 
economic  and  technical  developments,  in  so  far  as  such  changes  do  not  entail  a 
substantial  increase  in  costs  for  Member  States  and/or  in  the  burden  placed  on 
respondents (as described in Article 3(4) of Directive 2009/42/EC); 

•  drawing  up  a  list  of  ports,  coded  and  classified  by  country  and  by  maritime  coastal 

area (as described in Article 4(1) of Directive 2009/42/EC); and 

1  
Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 
amending Directive 2009/42/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea (OJ 
L 325, 9.12.2010, p. 1). 

2  
returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea (OJ L 141, 6.6.2009, p. 29). 

Directive 2009/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on statistical 

3  

Standard goods classification for transport statistics, 2007. 

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•  amending non-essential elements of Directive 2009/42/EC, in order to ensure that the 
methods of collecting data used for producing the statistical datasets on sea transport 
described in Annex VIII are such that these datasets meet the standards of accuracy 
set by the Commission (in Article 5 of Directive 2009/42/EC). 

Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 emphasises the importance of the Commission carrying out 
appropriate consultations when preparing delegated acts, including at expert level. 

2.  

LEGAL BASIS 

This report is required under Article 10a(1) of Directive 2009/42/EC. This provision confers 
on  the  Commission  the  power  to  adopt  delegated  acts  for  a  period  of  five  years  from  29 
December 2010. It requires the Commission to prepare a report in respect of the delegation of 
power at the latest six months before the end of the five-year period. 

3. 

EXERCISE OF THE DELEGATION 

Since  Regulation  (EU)  No  1090/2010  entered  into  force,  the  Commission  has  adopted  one 
delegated  decision,  Commission  Delegated  Decision  2012/186/EU4.  This  adapted  certain 
parts  of  the  data  collection  requirements  set  out  in  Annexes  I  to  VIII  of  Directive 
2009/42/EC, in order to reflect economic and technical developments.  

The  Commission  deemed  it  necessary  to  exercise  the  power  conferred  on  it  by  Directive 
2009/42/EC  in  order  to  implement  a  set  of  recommendations  for  adapting  and  simplifying 
data  collection  proposed  by  the  Task  Force  on  Maritime  Transport  Statistics5  and  later 
approved by the Working Group on Maritime Transport Statistics.6 As stated in Article 3(4) 
of Directive 2009/42/EC, the Commission may adopt these measures by means of delegated 
acts.7 

4  
Commission Delegated Decision 2012/186/EU of 3 February 2012 amending Directive 2009/42/EC of 
the European Parliament and of the Council on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers 
by sea (OJ L 101, 11.4.2012, p. 5). 

The Task Force on Maritime Transport Statistics, in operation from 2006 to 2009, included experts 

5  
from five Member States’ statistical authorities and representatives from maritime industry organisations and the 
Commission. 

6  
The Working Group on Maritime Transport Statistics consists of experts from the national authorities 
with competency for maritime transport statistics in all EU Member States and European Free Trade Agreement 
countries and representatives from candidate countries, maritime industry organisations and the Commission. It 
approved these recommendations in April 2008 and March 2010. 

7  
Directive 2009/42/EC (as amended by Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010). 

In accordance with Article 10a and subject to the conditions set out in Articles 10b and 10c of 

3 

 
 
 
                                                            
Commission  Delegated  Decision  2012/186/EU  introduced  the  following  adaptations  and 
simplifications of the data collection requirements set out in Annexes I to VIII of Directive 
2009/42/EC: 

1)  Technical change to the classification of type of cargo in Annex II: the former cargo 
category 63 was divided into the three new cargo categories: 64 Rail wagons engaged 
in goods transport, 65 Shipborne port-to-port trailers engaged in goods transport and 
66 Shipborne barges engaged in goods transport. 

2)  Technical  change  to  the  nomenclature  for  maritime  coastal  areas  in  Annex  IV:  the 
former maritime coastal area code for Mexico was split into the two separate codes: 
MX01 Mexico: Atlantic and MX02 Mexico: Pacific. 

3)  Simplification of the data collection for  vessel  traffic  in  the main European ports in 
datasets F1 and F2 in Annex VIII: the variable Direction was deleted (as only data on 
inwards movement into ports is to be collected). 

4)  Formalisation  of  the  legal  status  of  datasets  F1  and  F2  in  Annex  VIII:  collection  of 

data for dataset F1 is now voluntary and for dataset F2 it is now mandatory. 

5)  Introduction of a new dataset, C2, in Annex VIII: specifications have been added for 
the voluntary collection of data on Ro-Ro container units in the main European ports. 

6)  Technical change to the classification of type of cargo in Annex II: a set of codes has 
been introduced for collecting data on Ro-Ro container units for the dataset C2 (RX 
Large Ro-Ro containers, R1 20 ft freight units, R2 40 ft freight units, R3 Freight units 
> 20 ft and < 40 ft, and R4 Freight units > 40ft). 

7)  In  addition,  the  descriptions  of  statistical  variables  and  definitions given  in  Annex  I 

were updated to reflect the technical changes listed above. 

When  preparing  the  Delegated  Decision,  the  Commission  consulted  national  experts  at  the 
annual  meetings  of  the  Coordinating  Group  for  Statistics  on  Transport  that  took  place  in 
December  2010  and  December  2011.  The  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  were  duly 
informed of all expert group meetings and received all relevant documents promptly and in 
an  appropriate  form.  The  draft  Commission  Delegated  Decision  was  discussed  and 
favourably  received  by  Directors  General  of  National  Statistical  Institutes  of  the  European 
Union in November 2011. 

The  Commission  adopted  the  Delegated  Decision  on  3  February  2012  and  notified  the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council.  Neither  the  European  Parliament  nor  the  Council 
issued  any  objection  to  the  Delegated  Decision  within  the  standard  two-month  period 
allowed. On the expiry of the two-month period, the Delegated Decision was published in the 
Official Journal of the European Union on 11 April 2012. It entered into force on 12 April 
2012. 

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4.  

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  has  exercised  its  delegated  powers  correctly  and  invites  the  European 
Parliament and the Council to take note of this report. 

5