CELEX: 51998PC0270
Language: en
Date: 1998-04-27
Title: Amended proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States (Intrastat)

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                             Brussels, 27.04.1998
                                              COM(1998) 270 final
                                              97/0155 (COD)
                           Amended proposal for a
    EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL REGULATION (EC)
amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the
             trading of goods between Member States (INTRASTAT)
         (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 189 a (2)
                             of the EC-Treaty)
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                      EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
 1 The Commission has studied the report of the European Parliament1 and the adopted
amendments2.
2. The Commission approves the amendments of the European Parliament except the
immediate deletion of the "delivery terms" (amendment 2). The Commission
recommends a transition period for the suppression of this data element to allow the
Member States to adjust their statistical systems in order to compensate for this loss of
information.
3. The Commission agrees to maintaining the region of origin/destination as optional
data elements, and has taken into consideration the importance of this information for
some Member States. However, the Commission is undertaking a study to examine the
possibilities of using alternative sources for the collection of this data item, e.g.
administrative registers.
4. The Commission shares the point of view of the European Parliament that the
simplifications should be designed in particular for the SMEs for whom the declarative
burden is often disproportionate to the utility of the trade statistics. This can be
achieved by introducing thresholds for the collection of the optional data elements.
The Commission finds that such measures will reinforce the simplification impact of
the revised proposal, and will respond to the complaints of the providers in terms of
the excessive declaration burden.
5. The Commission finds it important to achieve concrete legislative results, and
emphasizes the strong political support which has been expressed in respect of the
SLIM project of which INTRASTAT is part.
1
  A4-0102/98 of 19 March, 1998
2
  PE 268.231 of 1 April, 1998
                                              Z
 ---pagebreak---                                      Amended proposal for a
                       European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC)
        amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the
                       trading of goods between Member States (INTRASTAT)
    Text proposed by the Commission( )                            Amendments proposed
                                               (Amendment 1)
                                                   Recital 6
Whereas optional data should be                       Whereas the mode of transport, the terms
abolished in order to limit the burden on             of delivery as well as optional data should
providers of statistical information and to           be abolished for enterprises with limited
guarantee equal treatment of these;                   trade, in order to limit the burden on
whereas the reporting of the country of               providers of statistical information^
origin is nevertheless of particular benefit          particularly small and medium-sized
to numerous users and should therefore                enterprises; whereas the collection of such
be retained;                                          information from other enterprises should
                                                      be limited according to national
                                                     requirements;
                                               (Amendment 2)
                                                ARTICLE 1(4)
                                  Article 23(2) (Regulation (EEC) 3330/91)
Member States may not require the                    In order to limit the number of small and
statistical data medium to mention data              medium-sized enterprises which are
other than those provided for in paragraph           required to provide detailed statistical data
1, with the exception of the following:              the Commission shall determine, pursuant
                                                     to Article 30 of this Regulation, a
                                                     threshold below which the Member States
                                                     may not require the statistical data
                                                     medium to mention data other than those
                                                     provided for in paragraph 1. The threshold
                                                     shall be set at the highest level at which
                                                     the compatibility of the information
                                                     collected in the Member States can be
                                                     guaranteed. To that end, the Commission
                                                     may set different values for different
                                                     Member States.
    (')QJC 203, 3.7.1997, p. 10.
                                             3
 ---pagebreak---                                           Apart from the data provided for in
                                          paragraph 1, Member States may, solely in
                                          respect of providers of statistical
                                          information with dispatches or arrivals of
                                          an annual value in excess of the above
                                          threshold, require the statistical data
                                          medium to mention the following data:
(a) in the Member State of arrival, the   (a)  in the Member State of arrival, the
    country of origin;                         country of origin;
(b) the terms of delivery         until   (b)  me      terms  of   ddivery    umi|
    31 December 1999.                          3 , Decemher  1999.
                                          (c)  in the Member State of dispatch, the
                                               region of origin and in the Member
                                                State of arrival, the region of
                                               destination.
                                        y
 ---pagebreak---                                                                   ISSN 0254-1475
                                                            COM(98) 270 final
                                              DOCUMENTS
EN                                                             17 06 02 10
                                    Catalogue number : CB-C0-98-284-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-78-35473-2
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
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