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 Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures
Date: 2016-08-10
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, carriage of goods, delegated legislation, inland waterway, powers of the institutions (EU), transfer of competence, transport statistics

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 10.8.2016  COM(2016) 507 final 2013/0226 (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 Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
 
2013/0226 (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 Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 on statistics of 
goods transport by inland waterways as regards conferring 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 

28 June 2013  

COM(2013) 484 – 2013/0226 (COD) 

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

NA 

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

11 March 2014  

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

NA  

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

18 July 2016  

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

2. 
The sole objective of the Commission’s proposal is to align Regulation (EC) No 1365/20061 
with  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the  European  Union  (TFEU)  as  far  as  delegated  and 
implementing powers are concerned. 

The  proposed  Regulation  would    empower  the  Commission  to  adopt  delegated  acts  for  the 
purpose  of:  i)  adapting  the  threshold  for  statistical  coverage  of  inland  waterways  transport,  
adapting  the  existing  definitions  and  adopting  additional  definitions  and  ii)    adapting  the 
scope of the data collection  and the content of the Annexes.  

It  would  also  confer  implementing  powers  on  the  Commission  with  a  view  to  ensuring 
uniform conditions under which it can: i) set standard rules on the arrangements for Member 
States to submit  data to the Commission (Eurostat) including data interchange standards and 
on    the  dissemination  of  results  by  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  and  ii)    develop  and  publish 
methodological requirements and criteria designed to ensure the quality of the data produced, 

1 

Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on 
statistics of goods transport by inland waterways (OJ L 264, 25.9.2006, p.1). 

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in  accordance  with  the  examination  procedure  laid  down  in  Article  5 of Regulation  (EU) 
No 182/2011 2.  

3. 

3.1 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

General comments 

The  position  of  the  Council  reflects  on  the  one  hand  the  agreement  reached  between  the 
Council, the European Parliament Transport and Tourism   Committee  and the Commission 
in the tripartite discussions and, on the other hand, the new Inter-Institutional Agreement  on 
Better law-making of 13 April 20163.  

The Council adopted its position at first reading on 18 July 2016.  

The Council’s position is acceptable for the Commission. 

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  main  issue  addressed  in  the  inter-institutional  discussions  was  the  introduction  of  pilot 
studies and their nature. Such studies had been proposed as a compromise in response to the 
European  Parliament’s  request  to  include  additional  variables  on  passengers  transport  by 
inland waterways in the Regulation.  

The new Article 4a stipulates  that the Commission will  launch voluntary pilot studies to be 
carried out by Member States providing information on the availability of statistical data on  
passengers  transport  by  inland  waterways  and  inland  waterway  cross-border  services.  The 
Commission (Eurostat), will work with Member States, to determine the appropriate statistical 
methodology.  Moreover,  the  general  budget  shall  contribute  to  financing  these  pilot  studies 
where appropriate and taking into account the added value for the Union. The new Article is 
therefore acceptable for the Commission.  

The content  of amendment 10 (Article 7, new paragraphs 3a and 3b)  on the rules on quality 
criteria  is  acceptable  for  the  Commission,  as  they  are  in  line  with  Regulation  (EC)  No 
223/20094. It also provides for the adoption by means of implementing acts of specification 
for the modalities, structure, periodicity and comparability elements for the quality reports.   

Amendment  11  (Article  8)  requires    the  Commission  to  submits  a  report  to  the  European 
Parliament and to the Council every five years instead of every three years as proposed by the 
European Parliament.  

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

The main amendments relating to the explicit addition of new variables were not included in 
the Council position.  

3.3 

Provisions modified by the Council and the Commission's position 

Articles  2(5),  3  and  4(4)  are  related  to  the  delegation  of  powers.  The  empowerment  of  the 
Commission is maintained but with specific limitations. The Commission will be empowered 

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Regulation  (EU)  No  182/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  16  February  2011 
laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of 
the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p.13). 
OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p.1. 
Regulation  (EC)  No  223/2009  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  11  March  2009  on 
European statistics (OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164). 

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to adopt delegated acts only in order to: i) introduce increases to the threshold; ii) adapt the 
existing  definitions  or  adopt  new  definitions  to  reflect  changes  in  definitions  used  at 
international level and iii)   adapt the Annexes to reflect changes in coding and nomenclature 
at international level or in the relevant legislation of the European Union. 

The Council’s position also specifies that when exercising this power, the Commission shall 
ensure that the  delegated acts do not  impose  a significant  additional burden on the Member 
States  or  on  respondents.  In  addition,  the  Commission  shall  duly  justify  the  measures 
provided  for  in  the  delegated  acts,  using  where  appropriate,  analysis  of  their  cost-
effectiveness, including assessments of the burden on respondents and of the production costs, 
as referred to in Article 14(3) (c) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. 

The standard recital and Article 9 on the exercise of the delegation of power are in line with the 
new Inter-Institutional Agreement on Better Law-Making. 

The Commission supports the above. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  supports  the  compromise  reached  as  it  is  in  line  with  the  Commission’s 
efforts  to  align  pre-Lisbon  legislation.  Despite  some  limitations,  it  provides  a  good  balance 
between  delegated  and  implementing  acts.  Furthermore,  the  pilot  studies  offer  a  suitable 
response  to  the  European  Parliament’s  original  request.  The  text  is  an  example  of  the 
successful application of the new Inter-Institutional Agreement on Better Law-Making. 

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