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 under Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community
Date: 2019-07-01
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, arrangement of working time, delegated regulation, employment statistics, migrant worker, occupational safety, powers of the institutions (EU), self-employment, work-life balance, youth employment

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 1.7.2019 COM(2019) 308 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 under Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community            
 
 
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 under 
Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey 
in the Community 

1.  BACKGROUND 

Regulation  (EU)  No  545/2014  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  15  May 
2014 (1) modified Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force 
sample  survey  in  the  Community  (2)  in  order  to  align  it  with  the  distinction  between 
delegated  and  implementing  acts  introduced  under  the  Lisbon  Treaty,  and  introduced  a 
provision on the financing of ad hoc modules. 

Article 4(2) and Article 7a of Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 as amended, empower the 
Commission to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 7c : 

  with regard to the adjustment of the list of survey variables, specified in the list of 14 
groups  of  survey  characteristics  warranted  by  the  evolution  of  techniques  and 
concepts — Article 4(2); 

  establishing a programme of ad hoc modules covering 3 years — Article 7a.  

2.  LEGAL BASIS  

Under  Article  7c  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  577/98,  the  power  to  adopt  delegated  acts  is 
conferred for a period of 5 years from 18 June 2014. This power is to be tacitly extended for 
periods of 5 years unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension no 
later than three months before the end of each period. 

The Commission is required to draw up a report on the delegation of power no later than 9 
months before the end of the five-year period. 

This report fulfils this requirement. 

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Community (OJ L 77, 14.3.1998, p. 3). 

OJ L 163, 29.5.2014, p. 10. 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  577/98  on  the  organisation  of  a  labour  force  sample  survey  in  the 

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3.  COMMISSION  EXERCISE  OF  DELEGATED  POWERS  UNDER  REGULATION  (EC) 

NO 577/98 

The  Commission  has  adopted  the  following  two  delegated  acts:  Commission  Delegated 
Regulation  (EU) No 1397/2014  (3) and  Commission  Delegated Regulation  (EU) 2016/1851 
(4). 

  COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) NO 1397/2014 

Article 7a(4) of Regulation (EC) No 577/98, as amended by Regulation (EU) No 545/2014, 
empowers the Commission to adopt a three-year programme of ad hoc modules. For each ad 
hoc module, the programme shall stipulate its subject and reference period, and shall list its 
sub-modules, with a description of the specific area each one covers. 

Commission Regulation (EU) No 318/2013 (5) adopted the programme of ad hoc modules for 
the labour force sample survey from 2016 to 2018. It stipulates the subject and the reference 
period for each of the three ad hoc modules. 

When aligning the powers conferred on the Commission in Regulation (EC) No 577/98 with 
the  new  institutional  context,  the  legislator,  among  other  things,  stipulated  additional 
information to be included in the programme of ad hoc modules. As a result, the Commission 
was  required  to  include  additional  information  in  its  programme  of  ad  hoc  modules.  The 
programme of 2016 to 2018 ad hoc modules was therefore amended. 

Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  No  1397/2014  amends  Regulation  (EU)  No 
318/2013, providing the additional information that now has to be included in the programme 
of ad hoc modules, specifically the list of sub-modules and a description of each of them. 

The three ad hoc modules are the following: 

a)  Young people on the labour market (Reference period: 2016); 
b)  Self-employment (Reference period: 2017); 
c)  Reconciliation between work and family life (Reference period: 2018). 

The Commission  has carried out  appropriate consultations as part of the preparation of this 
Delegated Regulation. National experts were invited to the June 2014 meeting of the Labour 
Market  Statistics  working  group,  the  conclusions  of  which  were  circulated  amongst  those 
who attended the meeting. 

The  Commission  has  informed  both  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  about  the 
consultation results. 

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Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1397/2014 of 22 October 2014 amending Regulation (EU) 
No 318/2013 adopting the programme of ad hoc modules, covering the years 2016 to 2018, for the labour force 
sample survey provided for by Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 (OJ L 370, 30.12.2014, p. 42). 
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Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1851 of 14 June 2016 adopting the programme of ad hoc 
modules, covering the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, for the labour force sample survey provided for by Council 
Regulation (EC) No 577/98 (OJ L 284, 20.10.2016, p. 1). 
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Commission  Regulation  (EU)  No  318/2013  of  8  April  2013  adopting  the  programme  of  ad  hoc 
modules,  covering  the  years  2016  to  2018,  for  the  labour  force  sample  survey  provided  for  by  Council 
Regulation (EC) No 577/98 (OJ L 99, 9.4.2013, p. 11). 

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The  Commission  adopted  the  Delegated  Regulation  on  22  October  2014  and  notified  the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council.  Neither  the  European  Parliament  nor  the  Council 
issued  any  objection  to  the  Delegated  Regulation  within  the  standard  two-month  period 
allowed. At the end of the two-month period, the Delegated Regulation was published in the 
Official Journal of the European Union on 30 December 2014 and entered into force on 19 
January 2015. 

  COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2016/1851 

The  second  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  was  adopted  in  order  to  specify  the 
components of the new programme of ad hoc modules covering 2019, 2020 and 2021. 

The  subjects  answer  the  need  for  a  comprehensive  and  comparable  set  of  data  on  work 
organisation  and  working  time  arrangements,  and  more  detailed  data  on  labour  market 
participation,  to  monitor  progress  towards  achieving  the  common  objectives  of  the  Europe 
2020 strategy. For each ad hoc module, the programme stipulated the subjects and reference 
period, and listed its sub-modules, with a description of the specific area each one covers. 

The three ad hoc modules are the following: 

a)  Work organisation and working time arrangements (Reference period: 2019) 
b)  Accidents at work and other work-related health problems (Reference period: 2020) 
c)  Labour  situation  of  migrants  and  their  immediate  descendants  (Reference  period: 

2021). 

The  Commission  carried  out  appropriate  consultations  as  part  of  the  preparation  of  this 
Delegated Regulation. It consulted national experts invited to expert meetings to discuss the 
draft  delegated  act.  The  consultation  took  place  at  the  meetings  of  the  Labour  Market 
Statistics working group on 24-25 June 2014, 10-11 December 2014 and 7-8 December 2015. 

The European Directors of Social Statistics were also consulted during their meeting on 23-
24 February 2016. 

Finally, the Directors-General of the Member States’ national statistical institutes  were also 
consulted during a meeting held to discuss this matter on 18 May 2016. 

The  Commission  has  informed  both  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  about  the 
consultation results. 

The  Commission  adopted  the  Delegated  Regulation  on  14  June  2016  and  notified  the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council.  Neither  the  European  Parliament  nor  the  Council 
issued  any  objection  to  the  Delegated  Regulation  within  the  standard  two-month  period 
allowed. At the end of the two-month period, the Delegated Regulation was published in the 
Official  Journal  of  the  European  Union  on  20  October  2016  and  entered  into  force  on  9 
November 2016. 

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CONCLUSION 

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

The Commission believes that it should continue to have these powers, as in the future it may 
need  to  adopt  delegated  acts  for  additional  ad  hoc  modules  according  to  Article  4(2)  and 
Article 7a of Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98. 

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