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 (EC) No 451/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 establishing a new statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93
Date: 2023-10-17
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, European Commission, classification, delegated legislation, economic statistics, goods and services, powers of the institutions (EU), tariff nomenclature, transfer of competence

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 17.10.2023  COM(2023) 588 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 (EC) No 451/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 establishing a new statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93  
 
 
1.  

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EC)  No 451/2008  of  23 April 20081  created  a  new  statistical  classification  of 
products by activity (CPA). This piece of legislation ensures that European classifications are 
relevant  to  the  economic  reality  and  improves  the  comparability  of  national,  European  and 
international classifications. It therefore improves the comparability of national, European and 
international statistics. 

The classification of economic activities (NACE) was recently updated through Commission 
Delegated Regulation No 2023/137 of 10 October 20222. In addition, the 54th session of the 
United  Nations  Statistical  Commission3  set  an  objective  of  revising  the  Central  Product 
Classification (CPC) in 2024. As the NACE and the CPC are both reference classifications of 
the  CPA,  the  CPA  should  be  updated  soon  to  maintain  comparability  and  consistency  with 
product and economic activity classification standards used at international level. 

Article  6(2)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 451/20084  empowers  the  Commission  to  adopt,  in 
accordance  with  Article  6a  of  the  Regulation,  delegated  acts  amending  the  Annex  of  the 
Regulation to take account of technological or economic  developments or to align the CPA 
with other economic and social classifications. 

Under  the  terms  of  Article 6a(2),  the  power  to  adopt  delegated  acts  is  conferred  on  the 
Commission for a period of 5 years, starting from 26 July 2019. The delegation of power will 
be  tacitly  extended  for  additional  five-year  periods,  unless  the  European  Parliament  or  the 
Council opposes this extension no later than 3 months before the end of each period. 

Moreover, 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 that obligation. 

1  Regulation (EC) No 451/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 establishing a 
new statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93, 
OJ L145, 4.6.2008, p. 65. 

2 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/137 of 10 October 2022 amending Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 
of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the statistical classification of economic activities 
NACE Revision 2, OJ L 19, 20.1.2023, p. 5. 

3 See item 54/112 (d) of the Report on the fifty-fourth session (28 February – 3 March 2023) of the United Nations 

Statistical Commission (E/2023/24-E/CN.3/2023/37), accessible at 
https://unstats.un.org/UNSDWebsite/statcom/session_54/documents/2023-37-FinalReport-E.pdf 

4  As amended by Regulation (EU) 2019/1243 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 
adapting a number of legal acts providing for the use of the regulatory procedure with scrutiny to Articles 290 
and 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, OJ L 198, 25.7.2019, p. 241. 

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COMMISSION  EXERCISE  OF  DELEGATED  POWERS  UNDER 

2.  
REGULATION (EC) NO 451/2008 

Since  26 July 2019,  the Commission  has  not  exercised  its  power  to  adopt  delegated  acts  as 
conferred on it by Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 451/2008. 

3.  

CONCLUSION 

The Commission has not yet exercised the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on it by 
Regulation  (EC)  No 451/2008.  The  Commission  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  (EC)  No  451/2008,  as  it  needs  to  adopt  delegated  acts  in  the  future  in  a  timely 
manner to regularly update the CPA classification. Because it can update the CPA classification 
by means of a delegated act, the Commission will be able to support the European Statistical 
System by providing a classification that makes it possible to produce accurate statistics that: 
(i) are of high quality; (ii) reflect the structure of the European Union economy; and (iii) are 
consistent with other economic and social classifications. 

The Commission invites the European Parliament and the Council to take note of this report. 

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