CELEX: 51991PC0056
Language: en
Date: 1991-02-25
Title: DRAFT COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMUNITY SURVEY OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                        C0MC91) 56 final
                                        Brussels/ 25 February 1991
                            Draft
                  COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC)
         on the establishment of a Community survey
                  of industrial production
                (presented by the Commission)
 ---pagebreak---                                              - 2 -
                                Explanatory memorandum
 1.  The production statistics compiled by the Member States are very useful in providing
     a highly detailed picture of the industrial apparatus and especially of its competitive
     position, but the diversity of statistical methods used by each Member State means
     that the Community is unable to derive any benefit from the surveys carried out at
     national level.
2.   In the run-up to the large internal market in 1993, business statistics must be
     prepared to produce European-level results with the same degree of accuracy and
     reliability as the best national statistics. This will necessarily involve harmonization
     of methodologies and adaptation of national surveys to the European dimension.
3.   That is the aim of the system proposed by the Commission through the creation of a
     European survey of industrial production. This system is designed to transform the
     surveys carried out in the Member States by standardizing their product
     classifications and laying down conventions and constraints that will ensure high-
     quality Community statistics. Nevertheless, far from ruling out the possibility of
     national results, it will enhance their value by placing them in the context of Europe
     as a whole.
4.   The common classification for the national surveys of industrial production will be
     based on the Community external trade classification, the Combined Nomenclature.
     This will enable the production statistics to be compared easily with the external
     trade statistics and will considerably facilitate market studies and the calculation of
     domestic consumption.
5.  The information to be gained from the introduction of this system should not result
     in an increased survey burden on firms. It is therefore planned to set survey
     thresholds that take account of the national structure of industry so as to ensure a
     satisfactory degree of representativeness without having to survey the smallest firms;
     it will seldom be necessary to go below the 20-employee limit.
6.   Like the industrial situation to which it relates, the system is not static: it introduces
     an annual information system in terms of both volume and value on the basis of
     which extensions may be authorized in order to meet specific requirements of
     Community policy or surveillance of sensitive products.
7.  The reference to Council Regulation (Euratom/EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990
    authorizing the transmission to the Statistical Office of the European Communities of
    data subject to statistical confidentiality will make it possible to produce at
    Community level statistics that were hitherto regarded as being out of the question.
    Nevertheless, any publication of such data will be subject to the supervision of the
    committee responsible for implementing this new Regulation in order to ensure that
    data which might be detrimental to the interests of the Community are not divulged.
8.  The creation of these European statistics of industrial production meets a need
    widely felt by the European Federations of Branches of Industry, the Commission
    and the National Statistical Offices.          They constitute the cornerstone of an
    information system whose development forms a logical part of the gradual build-up
    of a system of European business statistics.
 ---pagebreak---                                              - 3 -
                                            Draft
                                COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC)
                    on the establishment of a Community survey
                                of industrial production
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in
particular Article 213 thereof,
Having regard to the draft Regulation submitted by the Commission,
Whereas in order to carry out the tasks devolving on it from the Treaties, especially with
the prospect of the internal market as provided for under Article 8a of the Treaty
establishing the European Economic Community, the Commission must have full, up-to-
date and reliable information on industrial production in the Community;
Whereas companies need such information in order to know their markets and the
international dimension of these markets will favour an alignment between production
statistics and external trade statistics;
Whereas if production statistics are to be useful and make such alignment practicable, they
must be drawn up at a level of detail which is close to the first six digits of the Combined
Nomenclature (which also corresponds to the coding used in the Harmonized System);
Whereas the Combined Nomenclature is a product nomenclature with which companies are
already familiar, and it will be to their benefit to make reference to this, instead of a newly
created classification specific to production activities;
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Whereas it is only if the Member States use survey classification systems derived from the
 same product list that standardized statistics can be drawn up with reliability, speed,
f l e x i b i l i t y and the level of detail required to manage the internal market;
Whereas in order to meet particular national requirements,  Member States may retain or
enter in their national nomenclatures items to supplement the Community product l i s t ,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
 ---pagebreak---                                         - 5 -
                                      Article 1
                                     General
Member   States shall carry out a Community statistical survey of industrial production.
                                      Article 2
                           Surveyfieldand characteristics
(1)   Thefieldof production covered by the survey provided for in Article 1
     shall be that of the activities listed in sections C, D and E of NACE
     Rev. 1 as established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 (1).
(2)   The production recorded by the survey in this field shall be defined
      by the list of products, hereinafter referred to as "PR0DC0M list1'
      The elements of this list shall be built up, in principle, with
      articles  or groups of articles from the Combined Nomenclature.
      The PR0DC0M list and the procedures shall be laid down by the Commission
      after consulting the Committee referred to in Article 9 and in accordance
     with the procedure laid down in Article 10.           The same procedure shall be
      followed for updating the PR0DC0M list.
(3)  The survey shall cover the following information for each product:
     a)   Unless stated otherwise under paragraph 4, the volume of production
          sold during the survey period;
      b)  The value of production sold during the survey period/
 ---pagebreak---                                                 - 6 -
(4)    In the case of some products in the PRODCOM list , the information on volume of
       production referred to in paragraph 3(a) shall not be information on the
       production sold during the survey period but one of the following two
       variables:
       a) The volume of production actually carried out during the survey period,
            including any which is incorporated into the manufacture of other products from
            the same enterprise;
       b) the volume of production actually carried out during the survey period with a
            view to its being offered for sale.
(5)    The survey in each Member State shall cover only that production actually carried
       out within the national territory and shall not include subcontracted production
       outside the national territory.
                                           Article 3
                                       Representativeness
The production of all enterprises of the Community is to be recorded with a certain degree
of accuracy for each NACE Rev. 1 class.
The survey shall fulfil the following requirements:
(1)    The data supplied shall represent the production of all enterprises which have 20 or
       more employees;
(2)    if the production of enterprises which have 20 or more employees is less than 90%
       of the national production for one NACE Rev. 1 class, additional enterprises shall be
       included until this threshold is reached      for the class concerned;
 ---pagebreak---                                            - 7 -
(3)     if the production of enterprises which have 20 or more employees is more than 90%
        of the national production for one NACE Rev. 1 class, a threshold higher than 20
        persons employed may be used by the Member State concerned, where such an
        increase in the threshold does not compromise the representation of 90% for the
        class concerned.
The survey methodology shall be improved to enable Community production to be valued
sufficiently accurately. The appropriate measures shall be drawn up by the Commission
following consultation with the Committee referred to in Article 9, in accordance
with the procedure specified in Article 10.
                                            Article 4
                                           Periodicity
The survey shall cover a period of one calendar year.
However, monthly or quarterly surveys may be carried out for certain products in the
 PRODCOM list .
                                            Article 5
                                       Collection of data
(1)     Member     States    shall collect the required data using survey questionnaires. The
        Commission shall lay down the relevant arrangements.
(2)     The enterprises called upon by Member States to supply information shall be
        obliged to give honest and complete information within the prescribed periods.
 ---pagebreak---                                              - 8 -
(3)   The      survey     may     not    be     requisite     if  Member     States
      already have information from other sources which is at least equivalent as regards
      precision and quality.
                                           Article 6
                                      Processing of results
Member States shall process the completed questionnaires (Article 5(1)) or
information from other sources (Article 5 (3)) in accordance with specifications
which the Commission shall lay down.
                                           Article 7
                                     Transmission of results
(1)    Member      States      shall send the results of the annual survey to the Statistical
       Office of the European Communities within six months after the end of the survey
       year. These shall include any data which are classed as confidential under national
       legislation; these data should be clearly marked as such.
       The first survey shall cover 1993.
(2)    Product data which have a periodicity shorter than annual shall be sent
       under the procedure which the Commission shall lay down.
(3)    With the data for 1993 the Member States shall send information relating to 1992
       using national statistics which correspond as closely as possible to the PRODCOM
       list .
 ---pagebreak---                                               - 9 -
(4)    Data transmitted to the Statistical Office of the European Communities
       shall be treated as confidential as required by Council Regulation
       (Euratom/EEC) No 1588/90 (2).
                                          Article 8
                                    Transitional period
Articles 1 to 7 shall be the subject of progressive implementing measures
for the surveys covering 1993 and 1994.
                                          Article 9
                                      The Committee
The procedures for implementing this Regulation, including the measures for adjustment to
technical progress concerning the processing and the transmission of the results shall be laid
down by the Commission after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee set up by
Council      Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (3), in accordance with the procedure
set out in Article 10.
 ---pagebreak---                                               - 10 -
                                           Article 10
                                           Procedure
The representative of the Commission shall submit to the committee a draft of the measures
to be taken. The committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft, within a time limit which
the chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter, if necessary by taking a
vote.
The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in addition, each Member State shall have the
right to ask to have its position recorded in the minutes.
The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by the committee. It
shall inform the committee of the manner in which its opinion has been taken into account.
                                           Article 11
                                        Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of
the European Communities.
 ---pagebreak---                                           - 11 -
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at    Brussels,                                                      For the Council
                                                                           The President
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                eN
                                          - 12 -
                                 FICHE FINANCIERE
            concernant la mise en place d'une enquête communautaire
                          sur La production industrielle
TI   Budget : B5-60       Article : 85-60 1
     Titre :     Actions relatives aux programmes statistiques sectoriels pour
                 l'accompagnement des politiques communautaires
2l   Base légale : Article 100 A du Traité instituant la Communauté
                       Economique Européenne.
     Classification :     Dépense non obligatoire
4.   Description du projet :
4.1  Objectifs       (a) harmoniser les statistiques de production sur te champs
                         industriel
                     (b) produire une statistique européenne détaillée et rapide
                     (c) rapprocher les statistiques de production des
                         statistiques de commerce extérieur
4.2  Actions :       (a) aider les Etats membres à mettre en place tes
                         équipements nécessaires
                     (b) aider au démarrage d'enquêtes pilote.
__   Méthode de calcuT
5.1  Nature des dépenses :
      (1) frais d'envoi, de collecte, de traitement occasionnés par des
           enquêtes pilotes;
      (2)  financement d'équipement pour le traitement des données.
 5.2  Part de la Coawission :     25 X
 5.3  Calcul :      enquêtes pilotes :       1 Million d'écus
                   équipements         :     4 Millions d'écus
 6.   laplication financière au regard des opérations
 6.1  Calendrier
                                 Crédits                 Crédits
                                 engagés                 dépensés
      1991
      1992                         1,7                     2,1
      1993                         1,2                     1,0
      1994                                                 0,2
      Total                        5,0                     5,0
 6.2  Financement :        Aucun en 1990
 77"  Observations      (1) La Communauté apporte sa contribution en complément
                            d'un financement des Etats membres: coût total de
                            l'opération 20 Mecu
                        (2) La Commission se réserve le droit de réaffecter les
                            crédits en fonction des priorités de l'exercice en
                            cours.
 ---pagebreak---                                                  - 13 -
                  Impact on SMEs of the PRODCOM Regulation.
1. Administrative obligations on enterprises resulting from the application of legislation.
   The aim of the Regulation is to widen the interest of statistics already collected by the
   Member States, without increasing the survey burden on enterprises, by producing annual
   European industrial statistics.
   The regulation breaks new ground by harmonizing survey methods, especially
   classifications. Each country's survey classification will be based on a common model,
   itself based on the Combined Nomenclature, the Community's nomenclature for external
   trade. The national survey classifications will therefore be largely harmonized with the
   Combined Nomenclature.
   All industrial enterprises are concerned by these statistics, but experience in the
   Community's advanced countries has led to the survey being limited as far as possible to
   enterprises with at least 20 employees.
2. Advantages for enterprises.
   The European dimension of the results produced by the new survey system is a major
   advantage for enterprises : instead of juxtaposing incomplete national statistics that are
   difficult to compare, the new system will produce the fullest statistics at European level, if
   not at the level of individual Member countries.
   All the enterprises interviewed in the Community will provide data on the same list of
   products and, thanks to the new Council Regulation authorizing the forwarding of
   confidential data to Eurostat, areas of secrecy will be kept to a minimum.
   In this way it will at last be possible to have statistics for a number of industrial products
   which were formerly excluded by national constraints.
   And these statistics will lead directly to market statistics, because the survey classifications
   are based on the Combined Nomenclature.
   Enterprises will therefore be able to gain access to an unprecedented amount of
   information on their markets without having to call upon the expensive services of
   specialized firms.
   The professionals are in no doubt as to the utility of these new statistics for enterprises.
   The utility will be further enhanced by the short deadline imposed on Member countries
   for producing the results.
 ---pagebreak---                                                - 14 -
3. Disavantages for enterprises.
                                                                                    »
   It should be remembered, firstly, that these statistics will not concern the great majority of
   enterprises with fewer than 20 employees.
   For the remaining minority, there may be difficulties stemming from the level of detail or
   the nature of the data required and the frequency of interrogation, especially in the less
   advanced countries where enterprises are not so used to developed statistics.
   Since the statistics will be annual, the periodicity cannot be called into question. As
   regards the survey classification, which lays down the detail and nature of the data,
   enterprises will be spared the task of learning a new classification since the Combined
   Nomenclature will be used.
   It should be added that entei prises will find it simpler to provide replies the more reduced
   or concentrated their activities (the case of "small and medium-sized enterprises'*) and that
   the largest enterprises are sufficiently well organized to reply in the level of detail
   corresponding to the diversity of their markets.
   As regards data collection, the European dimension will help develop computerized data
   forwarding techniques.
4. Have the two sides of industry been consulted in advance?
   There have been systematic consultations with European Federations of industrial
   branches, as least with those existence was known through national statistical offices and
   Commission departments. Over 200 federations were involved. These consultations played
   an essential role in tailoring the survey system to provide market information.
   In addition, each national statistical office was able to extend consultations to other types
   of partner through the organizations on the Member countries normally responsible for
   national consultations in statistical matters.
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|î                                                                                         ISSN 0254-1475
                                                                               COM(91) 56 final
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