CELEX: 51993PC0073
Language: en
Date: 1993-03-12
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION on inter-administration telematic networks for statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States - COMEDI - (Commerce Electronic Data Interchange)

No C 87 / 10                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                    27 . 3 . 93
               Proposal for a Council Decision on inter-administration telematic networks for statistics relating
               to the trading of goods between Member States — Commerce electronic data interchange
                                                           ( Comedi)
                                                         (93 / C 87/ 11 )
                                                 COM(93) 73 final — SYN 4H
                                      (Submitted by the Commission on 15 March 1993)
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                           Whereas it is necessary to ease the burden which stat­
                                                                    istical returns place on businesses, while at the same time
                                                                    improving the circulation of statistical information with a
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             view to the creation of the European information
 Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a                 market ;
 thereof,
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                Whereas Council Regulation (EEC) No 3924/91 (2) of
                                                                    19 December 1991 on the establishment of a Community
                                                                    survey of industrial production lays down that the
 In cooperation with the European Parliament,                       compilation of harmonized statistics, in particular with a
                                                                    link between production statistics and statistics on trade ,
                                                                    should be ensured, as this constitutes an essential element
 Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
 Social Committee,                                                  in market transparency and in the evaluation of the
                                                                   competitiveness of businesses ;
Whereas completing the Internal Market depends on the
 elimination of physical frontiers between Member States ;         Whereas the promotion of the use of harmonized
whereas a satisfactory level of information on the trading         standards and concepts at European level will ultimately
of goods between Member States must therefore be                   lead to the elimination of duplication and to economies
ensured by means other than those involving checks ,               of scale, while facilitating the emergence of new services
 even indirect ones , at internal frontiers ;                      in the field of statistical telematics ;
Whereas it will consequently be necessary to collect               Whereas       the    establishment    of common     statistical
directly from the consignors and consignees the data               standards for the production of harmonized information
 necessary to compile statistics relating to the trading of        is an activity which can only be carried out effectively at
goods between Member States, using methods and tech­               Community         level,  while    such  standards   will    be
niques which will ensure that they are exhaustive,                 implemented in each Member State under the authority
reliable and up to date, without giving rise for the parties       of the bodies and institutions responsible for the compi­
concerned, in particular for small and medium-sized                lation and dissemination of official statistics ,
businesses , to a burden out of proportion to the results
which users of the said statistics can reasonably expect ;
                                                                   HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS :
Whereas Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 of
7 November 1991 on the statistics relating to the trading                                       Article 1
of goods between Member States (') lays down that the
conditions should be created for increased use of
                                                                   A set of measures shall be implemented to create stan­
automatic data processing and electronic data trans­               dardized infrastructures at European level for the
mission for the purpose of facilitating the task of the            collection of returns on the trading of goods and on
parties responsible for providing information ;                    production from businesses , the validation and
                                                                   pre-processing of such returns and the dissemination of
Whereas Article 129b of the Treaty on European Union               the statistics derived therefrom .
lays down that the Community shall contribute to the
establishment and development of trans-European
networks in the area of telecommunications, and that               These infrastructures shall be linked by a set of
action by the Community shall aim at promoting the                 distributed databases, the interoperability of which shall
interconnection and interoperability of national networks          be guaranteed by the development and use of
as well as access to such networks ;                               harmonized standards and communication procedures .
(') OJ No L 316 , 16 . 11 . 1991 .                                 O OJ No L 374 , 31 . 12 . 1991 .
 ---pagebreak--- 27 . 3 . 93                               Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 87 / 11
These infrastructures shall be based on the use of elec­            These measures shall use new technologies and new
tronic data interchange (EDI) for the transmission of               products in the field of telecommunications to meet the
statistical returns and on computerized procedures to be            needs of the statistical system and shall incorporate the
made available to the parties responsible for providing             results into the various computer environments of the
information and to the relevant authorities in the                  authorities concerned .
Member States .
These infrastructures shall be developed in a way which                                       Article 5
takes account of the requirements associated with
compiling the statistics which are necessary for market             In accordance with the provisions of Article 6 of this
transparency and the evaluation of the competitiveness of           Decision, the Commission, assisted by the Committee on
businesses .                                                        the Statistical Programme of the European Communities
                                                                    established by Council Decision 89 / 382 /EEC ,
                             Article 2                              Euratom ('), shall draw up annually the programme of
                                                                    measures necessary for implementing this Decision .
This set of measures shall cover the period 1993 to 1997 .
                                                                    Each measure shall lay down precise quantified
                             Article 3                              objectives and provide for an evaluation of the results
                                                                    obtained in the light of these objectives .
This set of measures shall comprise in particular :
                                                                    Each measure shall undergo a cost-effectiveness analysis
— the design, development and provision to businesses               and be implemented in accordance with sound economic
     of software for the collection, validation and trans­
     mission of statistical information ,
                                                                    principles .
— the design , development and provision to the                                               Article 6
     regional, national and Community bodies responsible
     for collecting statistical information , of hardware and       The representative of the Commission shall submit to the
     software for the acceptance , validation, processing           said Committee a draft of the measures to be taken . The
     and dissemination of data,                                     Committee shall give its opinion on this draft within a
— the design, development and implementation of                     period of time determined by the chairman in the light of
     protocols for the exchange of information, on the              the urgency of the matter in question. If necessary, the
     basis of European and international standards ,                Committee shall reach its opinion by putting the matter
                                                                    to the vote .
— the design, documentation and promotion of
     methods , protocols and interfaces to be used in the           The Committee's opinion shall be recorded in the
     exchange of information .                                      minutes . Each Member State shall, moreover, be entitled
In order to ensure that the economy benefits from this              to have its position recorded in the minutes .
programme, steps shall be taken to favour private-sector
suppliers of software and value-added services which                The Commission shall take the fullest possible account of
meet the needs of the statistical sector.                           the Committee's opinion and shall inform the Committee
                                                                    of the way in which it has done so.
                             Article 4
                                                                                              Article 7
In order to facilitate the implementation and use of these
infrastructures, the competent regional, national and               At the end of the period 1993 to 1997 , the Commission
Community bodies shall undertake promotion and                      shall present a report on the implementation of the
awareness campaigns, aimed mainly at businesses and                 programme to the Council and the European Parliament.
users .
Special measures shall be undertaken for the benefit of                                       Article 8
less developed regional and national bodies to enable
them to take part in these infrastructures .                        This Decision is addressed to the Member States .
                                                                    0) OJ No L 181 , 28 . 6. 1989, p. 47 .