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 Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection
Date: 2020-04-15
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU migration policy, EU statistics, emigration, external border of the EU, foreign national, illegal migration, immigration, return migration, right of asylum

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 15.4.2020  COM(2020) 153 final 2018/0154 (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 Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection    
 
 
2018/0154 (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 Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on 
migration and international protection 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council (document COM(2018) 307 final – 018/0154(COD)):  

16.5.2018 

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

16.4.2019 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

20.3.2020 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The aim of this proposal is: (i) to support the European agenda on migration by providing EU 
policy-makers  and  decision-makers  with  better  and  more  timely  statistics;  and  (ii)  to 
strengthen the response to the challenges posed by migration. In particular, the initiative will 
upgrade European statistics on asylum and managed migration by providing a legal basis for 
statistics that are currently collected voluntarily. 

In  addition,  the  revision  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  862/2007  will  improve  the  completeness, 
accuracy,  timeliness  and  certainty  of  existing  voluntary  transmissions  of  data  by  national 
authorities. In particular, it will ensure that statistics are provided in areas where stakeholders 
have expressed clear needs, such as asylum, returns (where statistics will be compiled more 
frequently), resettlement, residence permits, and migrant children.  

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

The  European  Parliament  adopted  its  first  reading  position  on  16 April 2019  based  on  the 
report voted by the LIBE Committee on 20 November 2018 and confirmed on 11 April 2019. 

This first reading position proposed many amendments to the Commission proposal, based on 
statistical  needs,  policy  needs,  and  the  feasibility  of  producing  statistics.  There  were  also 
some amendments on: (i) the introduction of new statistics; and (ii) changes to the frequency 
and timeliness of statistics. 

The  European  Parliament’s  new  negotiating  team  proposed  to  restart  the  negotiations  based 
on the Romanian Presidency’s compromise proposal (doc. 7935/19 of 1 April 2019).  

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Following  the  Council’s  adoption  of  its  first  reading  position,  the  European  Parliament  is 
expected to formally endorse the agreement reached in trilogues. 

4. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The  Council’s  position  reflects  the  agreement  reached  in  trilogues.  It  supports  and  further 
refines  the  Commission  proposal,  and  includes  several  requests  from  the  European 
Parliament. 

In particular, the Council in its first reading: 

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– 

– 

– 

states that: (i) the feasibility of a number of proposed new variables should first be 
tested through pilot  studies, rather than starting immediately on the data collection; 
and (ii) new data should only be collected if the evaluation of the results of the pilot 
studies is positive;  

changes  the  frequency  of  one  category  of  data  collection  from  monthly  to  annual, 
while  suggesting  that  the  pilot  study  shall  evaluate  the  provision  of  data  with 
monthly frequency; 

includes  a  new  article  on  financing,  which  provides  financial  support  for  both 
adapting data-collection tools and further data-collection processes; 

includes  a  new  article  allowing  Member  States  to  request  derogations  from  data 
collection for up to 3 years, with an additional derogation of a further 2 years. 

5. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  accepts  the  position  taken  by  the  Council.  Financial  support  to  Member 
States  is  subject  to  the condition that sufficient  resources are made available under the new 
Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027. 

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