COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries as regards conferring of delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures
Date: 2016-06-21
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, European Commission, foreign trade, power of implementation, powers of the institutions (EU), third country, trade statistics

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 21.6.2016  COM(2016) 420 final 2013/0279 (COD)   COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries as regards conferring of delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
 
2013/0279 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Regulation of the European 
Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 on 
Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries as regards 
conferring of delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the 
adoption of certain measures 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council 
(document  COM(2013) 0579 final – 2013/0279(COD): 

8 August 2013. 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

NA. 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

12 March 2014. 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

NA. 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

16 June 2016. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The  objective  of  the  Commission's  proposal  is  to  modify  Regulation  (EC)  No  471/2009  in 
order to align it to the new institutional context following the entry into force of the Treaty on 
the Functioning of the European Union.  

It was proposed: 

• 

• 

to  empower  the  Commission  to  adopt  delegated  acts  to  supplement  or  amend  rules  in 
respect of certain provisions, in order to take account of changes in the Customs Code 
or  provisions  deriving  from 
international  conventions,  changes  necessary  for 
methodological reasons and the need to set up an efficient system for the collection of 
data and the compilation of statistics, 

to  confer  implementing  powers  on  the  Commission  enabling  it  to  adopt  measures,  in 
accordance  with  the  examination  procedure,  relating  to  certain  provisions,  in  order  to 
ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 471/2009, 

and additionally 

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• 

to  replace  the  reference  to  the  Extrastat  Committee  by  a  reference  to  the  European 
Statistical  System  Committee  (ESSC),  in  the  context  of  a  general  restructuring  and 
streamlining of the European Statistical System (ESS). 

3. 

3.1 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

General comments 

The  position  of  the  Council  reflects,  on  the  one  hand,  the  provisional  political  agreement 
reached  between  the  Council,  the  INTA  Committee  of  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Commission in the informal tripartite discussion on 8 December 2014 and, on the other hand, 
the new Inter-Institutional Agreement on Better law-making (IIA), adopted and entered into 
force on 13 April 20161.  

Indeed,  the  main  issue  blocking  the  file  was  the  question  of  consultation  of  Member  States 
when the Commission prepares delegated acts. It was decided to await the entry into force of 
the IIA.  

The  Council  adopted  its  position  at  first  reading  on  16  June  2016.  The  amendments  mainly 
specify  certain  specific  obligations  for  Member  States  (inter  alia  transmission  deadlines) 
directly in the basic act, instead of empowering the Commission to specify them by delegated 
act  as  previously  proposed.    The  Commission  considers  that  those  legal  obligations  would, 
also in the longer run, anyway not need to be changed and that consequently, their move from 
delegated acts to the basic act does not create any problem of flexibility; it therefore does not 
object to those Council amendments.   

3.2 

Comments on the amendments adopted by the European Parliament 

3.2.1.  European  Parliament  amendments  included  in  full,  in  part  or  in  principle  in 

Council's position at first reading 

The  Commission`s  empowerment  to  adopt  delegated  acts,  originally  proposed  for  an 
indeterminate  period  of  time,  has  been  limited  to  a  five-year  period  as  proposed  by 
amendment 7 of the European Parliament. 

3.2.2.  European Parliament amendments not included in Council position at first reading 

In  its  first  reading  in  2014,  the  European  Parliament  proposed  amendments  which  would 
essentially  have  deleted  all  comitology  powers  proposed  by  the  Commission.  This  was  not 
acceptable for the Council or for the Commission.  

3.3 

New provisions introduced by the Council and the Commission's position 

The standard recital and paragraphs prescribed by the new IIA of 13 April 2016 were added. 
The Commission fully supports this addition. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  supports  the  compromise  reached  as  it  is  in  line  with  the  Commission's 
efforts  to  align  pre-Lisbon  legislation.  It  reflects  well  the  balance  between  delegated  and 
implementing acts as contained in the original proposal by the Commission. Furthermore, it is 
a  successful  case  of  application  of  the  new  Inter  Institutional  Agreement  on  Better  Law-
Making. 

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OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p.1. 

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