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 Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism
Date: 2021-02-25
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, European Commission, data collection, delegated legislation, delegated regulation, powers of the institutions (EU), tourism statistics

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 25.2.2021  COM(2021) 86 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 Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism   
 
 
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 
Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 
concerning European statistics on tourism 

1.  BACKGROUND 

Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 
concerning  European  statistics  on  tourism  (1)  established  a  common  framework  for  the 
systematic  development,  production  and  dissemination  of  statistics  on  tourism  in  the 
European Union. 

Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts: 

  amending the definitions to reflect changes to international definitions (Article 2(2)); 

  amending the deadlines for data transmission to take account of economic, social and 

technical developments (Article 9(5)); and 

  adapting the Annexes to take account of economic, social and technical developments. 
However, the Commission may not change provisions in the Annexes that make the 
required data optional and limit its scope (Article 3(2)). 

Furthermore,  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  emphasises  the  importance  of  the  Commission 
carrying out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, 
before adopting delegated acts. 

2.  LEGAL BASIS  

Article 11(2) of Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 confers on the Commission the power to adopt 
delegated  acts  for  a  period  of  five  years  from  11  August  2011.  This  power  will  be  tacitly 
extended  for  periods  of  five  years  unless  the  European  Parliament  or  the  Council  opposes 
such an extension at least three months before the end of each period.  

The  Commission  is  required  to  draw  up  a  report  on  the  delegation  of  power  at  least  nine 
months before the end of the five-year period. This report fulfils this requirement. 

The first report, covering the period 2011-2015, was adopted in January 2016 (2). 

3.  EXERCISE OF DELEGATED POWERS UNDER REGULATION (EU) NO 692/2011 

Since  2016,  the  Commission  has  adopted  two  delegated  acts:  Commission  Delegated 
Regulation (EU) 2019/1681 (3) and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/1569 (4). 

1  
2  

OJ L 192, 22.7.2011, p. 17. 
COM (2016) 4 of 20.1.2016. 

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  COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU)  2019/1681 

Articles 3(2)  and 9(5) of Regulation  (EU) No 692/2011 empower the Commission  to  adopt 
delegated  acts  adapting  the  Annexes  and  amending  the  transmission  deadlines,  to  take 
account of economic, social and technical developments. 

In the decade following the entry into force of Regulation (EU) No 692/2011, new economic, 
social  and  technical  developments  had  brought  about  a  shift  in  the  needs  of  those  who  use 
tourism  statistics.  Also,  efficiency  gains  in  the  production  process  had  made  it  possible  to 
produce  data in a more timely, user-relevant way. This  delegated  act  took account  of these 
developments  and  updated  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  by  amending  the  deadlines  for 
transmitting data and Annexes I and II. 

The updates provide for: 

a)  a  gradual  improvement  in  transmission  deadlines  for  all  monthly  data,  and  the 

transmission of validated data for all monthly and annual datasets (Article 9);   

b)  the annual transmission of the following new breakdowns for data on nights spent at 
tourist  accommodation  by  residents  and  non-residents,  to  improve  geographical  and 
temporal granularity (Annex I, Section 2):  

  monthly data for NUTS 2 regions;  
 

data  according  to  the  degree  of  urbanisation,  separately  for  coastal  and 
non-coastal areas;  
data for NUTS 3 regions; and 
data for capital cities and other selected cities; 

 
 

c)  the transmission, every three years, of demand-side information on digital platforms, 

based on variables linked to the booking mode for reported trips; 

d)  the annual transmission of fine-tuned breakdowns for the main means of transport and 

accommodation for reported trips; and 

e)  the annual transmission of package expenditure where reported trips are package trips. 

The delegated act did not add significantly to the burden on Member States and respondents, 
nor did it affect the underlying conceptual framework. 

The  Commission  carried  out  appropriate  consultations,  including  at  expert  level,  during  its 
preparatory work on this delegated act. The parties consulted included the Expert Group on 
Tourism Statistics, the Business Statistics Directors’ Group and the Expert Group ‘National 
Statistical  Institutes  of  the  European  Statistical  System’.  They  were  consulted  in  writing 
and/or in meetings between June 2018 and June 2019, and the European Parliament and the 
Council were duly informed about the consultation results. 

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Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1681 of 1 August 2019 amending Regulation  (EU) No 
692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism, as regards 
the transmission deadlines and adaptation of Annexes I and II (OJ L 258, 9.10.2019, p. 1). 
4  
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/1569 of 23 July 2020 amending Annex I to Regulation 
(EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council, on the classification of countries of residence 
of  guests  staying  at  tourist  accommodation  establishments  in  the  context  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  United 
Kingdom from the Union (OJ L 359, 29.10.2020, p. 1). 

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The  Commission  adopted  the  Delegated  Regulation  on  1  August  2019  and  notified  the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council;  neither  body  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 9 October 2019, and entered into force on 29 October 2019. 

  COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2020/1569 

The  second  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  aligned  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  with 
the  United  Kingdom  being  a  non-EU  country  (third  country)  since  1  February  2020.  As  of 
that date, European statistics on tourism needed to reflect the United Kingdom as a non-EU 
country.  The  delegated  act  updated  the  categories  to  be  used  for  the  country  or  the 
geographical area of residence of guests staying at tourist accommodation establishments, as 
set out in Section 3 ‘E. Countries and geographical areas’ of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 
692/2011, by including the United Kingdom as a separate country. 

The  Commission  exercised  the  power  to  adopt  this  delegated  act  under  Article 3(2)  of 
Regulation (EU) No 692/2011.  

The United Kingdom is an important source of tourists to the EU, so the Commission needed 
to  continue  receiving  reporting  countries’  data  on  inbound  tourism  flows  from  the  United 
Kingdom  separately,  as  was  the  case  for  major  partners  such  as  Russia,  the  United  States, 
Canada, Brazil, China and the countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The 
change  placed  no  additional  burden  on  Member  States,  as  they  were  already  sending  these 
data to Eurostat in the category ‘European Union (the Union); to be reported separately: each 
Member State’. The change only involved a shift to another line in the reporting template. 

The  Commission  carried  out  appropriate  consultations,  including  at  expert  level,  during  its 
preparatory work on this delegated act. The parties consulted included the Expert Group on 
Tourism Statistics, the Business Statistics Directors’ Group and the Expert Group ‘National 
Statistical  Institutes  of  the  European  Statistical  System’.  They  were  consulted  by  written 
procedure  between  February  2020  and  May  2020,  and  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council were duly informed about the consultation results. 

The  Commission  adopted  the  Delegated  Regulation  on  23  July  2020  and  notified  the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council;  neither  body  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 29 October 2020, and entered into force on 18 November 2020. 

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  it  may  need  to 
adopt delegated acts in the future to keep European tourism statistics in line with international 
definitions, or to take account of economic, social and technical developments. 

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