CELEX: 51996PC0719
Language: en
Date: 1997-01-10
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) amending, with respect to statistical territory, Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                                      Brussels, 10.01.1997
                                                      COM(96) 719 final
                                                      97/0015 (ACQ
                                       Proposal for a
                             COUNCIL REGULATION (EC)
amending, with respect to statistical territory, Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 on the
statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with
                                     non-member countries,
                              (presented by the Commission)
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                         EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
Subject: Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending Council Regulation (EC)
             No 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community
             and its Member States with non-member countries, concerning the statistical
             territory
1. In accordance with Article 3(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 the statistical
territory for statistics relating to external trade corresponds to the customs territory
defined by the Community customs code.
2. The second paragraph of the same Article, however, states that the French overseas
departments and the Canary Islands form an exception to this rule and are therefore
excluded from the statistical territory.
3. However, France and Spain have requested that these territories be included in the
Community statistical territory further to similar national decisions. This is a measure
which, by reducing the number of exceptions, improves the harmonisation of concepts.
4. By implementing this amendment, the French overseas departments and the Canary
Islands will no longer be considered non-member countries for the purpose of external
trade statistics; trading of goods between these territories and Member States other than
France and Spain respectively become intracommunity trade with these Member States;
trading between the French overseas departments and France or the Canary Islands and
Spain disappear from Community statistics and finally, trading between these territories
and non-member countries will be considered trading between France and Spain and non-
member countries.
5. It is therefore necessary to amend Article 3(2) and Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No
 1172/95 by deleting the parts referring to the French overseas departments and the Canary
Islands.
 ---pagebreak---                                          PROPOSAL FOR
                      COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) N°                        /96
                                          of
amending, with respect to statistical territory, Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 on the
statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with
non-member countries,
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular
Article 113 thereof
having regard to the proposalfromthe Commission,
whereas the decision by the French Republic to include the overseas departments in France's
statistical territory as from 1 January 1997,
whereas the decision by the Kingdom of Spain to include the Canary Islands in Spain's
statistical territory asfromthe same date,
whereas the definition of the statistical territory of the Community set out in Article 3 of
Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/951 and the field of application of the statistics relating to
the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries as
defined in Article 4 of the above-mentioned Regulation need to be adapted accordingly,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION
                                             Article 1
Council Regulation (EC) N° 1172/95 shall be amended as follows:
1) Article 3(2) shall be replaced by the following:
"By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the statistical territory of the Community shall
include Helgoland."
2) The second paragraph of Article 4(1) shall be deleted.
                                             Article 2
This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 1997.
         OJN°L 118 of 25.05.1995, p. 10.
 ---pagebreak--- This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels,                                                  for the Council
 ---pagebreak---                                                                   ISSN 0254-1475
                                                           COM(96) 719 final
                                              DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                            17
                                    Catalogue number : CB-C0-96-731-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-78-14113-5
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
L-2985 Luxembourg
                                                 <t