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 by Regulation (EU) 2019/516 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices
Date: 2023-04-24
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU Member State, EU statistics, European Commission, delegated legislation, general budget (EU), gross domestic product, market prices, national income, powers of the institutions (EU), transfer of competence

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 24.4.2023  COM(2023) 214 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 by Regulation (EU) 2019/516 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices  
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EU)  2019/5161  lays  down  the  procedures  to  make  it  easier  to  verify  Member  States’ 
estimates  of  gross  national  income  (GNI)  and  improve  their  reliability,  exhaustiveness  and 
comparability where necessary.  

For  GNI  data  to  be  reliable,  exhaustive  and  comparable,  Article  5(2)  of  Regulation  (EU)  2019/516 
empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts to set out the list of issues to be addressed in every 
verification cycle to ensure the reliability, exhaustiveness and highest possible degree of comparability 
of GNI data, in line with ESA 2010. 

2. 

LEGAL BASIS 

This  report  is  required  under  Article 7(2)  of  Regulation  (EU)  2019/516,  which  confers  on  the 
Commission  the  power  to  adopt  delegated  acts  for  a  period  of  5  years  from  18 April  2019.  This 
delegation of power is tacitly extended for periods of identical duration unless the European Parliament 
or  the  Council  opposes  such  extension  not  later  than  3  months  before  the  end  of  each  period.  The 
Commission is required to draw up a report on the exercise of the delegated power not later than 9 
months before the end of the 5-year period. 

3. 

EXERCISE OF THE DELEGATION 

In 2020 and in accordance with Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/516, the Commission adopted 
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/21472. In this legal act, the Commission has identified 
the  following  issues  to  be  addressed  in  every  verification  cycle  in  order  to  ensure  the  reliability, 
exhaustiveness and comparability of GNI data: 
— definition of geographic territory; 
— principles of estimating dwelling services; 
— treatment of repayments of value added tax (VAT); 
— measures on exhaustiveness; and 
— treatment of non-collected VAT. 

This  list  of  issues  is  based  on  the  process  of  verifying  GNI  data,  lessons  learned  from  previous 
verification cycles, and feedback from national accounts experts from the Member States. 

As part of the preparatory work for the delegated act, the Commission held appropriate consultations, 
including  at  expert  level.  The  Commission  expert  group  on  GNI  was  consulted  in  accordance  with 
Article  2,  point  (e),  of  Commission  Decision  C/2019/36513.  The  Commission  also  consulted  the 
Directors  of  macroeconomic  statistics  expert  group  and  the  National  Statistical  Institutes  of  the 
European Statistical System expert group. Finally, both the European Parliament and the Council were 
duly informed of the consultations. 

On 8 October 2020, the Commission adopted Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2147 and notified the 
European Parliament and the Council of its adoption. Neither the European Parliament nor the Council 
expressed any objection to the delegated act within the two-month period provided for by Article 7(6) 

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Regulation  (EU)  2019/516  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  19  March  2019  on  the 
harmonisation of gross national income at market prices and repealing Council Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom 
and Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1287/2003 (GNI Regulation) (OJ L 91, 29.3.2019, p. 19). 
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Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2147 of 8 October 2020 supplementing Regulation (EU) 
2019/516 of the European Parliament and of the Council by defining the list of issues to be addressed in every 
verification cycle (OJ L 428, 18.12.2020, p. 9). 
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(OJ C 174, 21.5.2019, p. 5). 

Commission Decision of 17 May 2019 setting up the Commission expert group on gross national income 

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of Regulation (EU) 2019/516. After the expiry of this period, more specifically on 18 December 2020, 
Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2147 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. It 
entered into force on 7 January 2021.  

4. 

CONCLUSION 

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

The Commission considers that it should continue to have the delegated powers under Regulation (EU) 
2019/516  as  it  may  need  to  adopt  delegated  acts  in  the  future  to  reflect  progress  in  statistical 
methodologies and ensure that GNI data are reliable, exhaustive and comparable. 

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