CELEX: 51998PC0269
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, with specific reference to the nomenclature of products (Intrastat)

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                                Brussels, 27.04.1998
                                                COM(1998) 269 final
                                                97/0162 (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, with specific reference to the
                  nomenclature of products (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.
3. The Commission thus accepts the position that the simplification benefits of a
specific INTRÀSTAT nomenclature including a substantial reduced number of
subheadings could in tho present collection system be counterbalanced by additional
costs for maintaining two nomenclature versions for intra and extra-Community trade.
This position has also been emphasized by representatives of European federations at
several occasions.
4. The amendments proposed by the European Parliament emphasizes the idea of a
single nomenclature - the Combined Nomenclature (CN) - for intra and extra-
Community trade statistics, and refers to the second phase of the SLIM initiative in
which the CN is subject of simplification. The Commission supports this approach.
5. The Commission shares the point of view of the European Parliament that the
simplifications should be designed in particular for the SMEs by introducing thresholds
or other measures, e.g. tools facilitating ths classification of the products, to simplify
the declaration of the product code.
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 difficulties to determine the correct product code.
6. 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.
• A4-0102/98 of 19 March, 1998
2
  PE 268.231 of 1 April, 1998
                                           J
 ---pagebreak---                                       Amended proposa! for a
                       European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC)
         amending Council Regulation (EEC) Nc 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the
             trading of goods between Member States, with specific reference to the
                             nomenclature of products (INTRASTAT)
     Text proposed by the Commission^)                           Amendments proposed
                                               (Amendment 1)
                                                 Recital 4
 Whereas the simplification of the product          Whereas the simplified use of the
nomenclature to be used for Intrastat               Combined Nomenclature for Intrastat
purposes is one such proposal, since                purposes, together with the availability to
information providers generally regard              information providers of tools facilitating
the classification of products as difficult;        the classification of goods, is one such
                                                    proposal, since information providers
                                                    generally regard the classification of
                                                   products in the Combined Nomenclature
                                                   as difficult;
                                              (Amendment 2)
                                             Recital 4a (new)
                                                   Whereas the simplification of the
                                                   Combined Nomenclature has been
                                                   proposed as a pilot project as part of the
                                                   second phase of the SLIM initiative(-);
                                                   iLl   (SEC( 97)0951)
                                              (Amendment 3)
                                                 Recital 5
Whereas, therefore, there is a need to             Whereas, therefore, there is a need to
simplify     this nomenclature         while       simplify the use of this nomenclature
maintaining       its   link    with     the       while preserving a single nomenclature for
nomenclature used for the trading of               the trading of goods within the single
goods with non-member countries and its            market and with non-member countries
compatibility with other statistical               which is compatible with other statistical
classifications;                                   classifications;
    ( 2 )OJC 245, 12.8.1997, p. 12.
 ---pagebreak---                                                   (Amendment 4)
                                                      Recital 6
  Whereas the Commission considers it                     Whereas it is desirable to establish a
  desirable to establish a partnership with               partnership with the national authorities
  the national authorities and the European               and the European representatives of the
  representatives of the providers and users              providers and users of statistical
  of statistical information in order to draw             information in order to draw up proposals
  up proposals for simplifying the                        for     simplifying       the    Combined
  nomenclature applicable for Intrastat                   Nomenclature;
  purposes;
                                                  (Amendment 5)
                                                  Recital 6a (new)
                                                          Whereas this partnership must still make
                                                          it possible to preserve a sufficiently
                                                          detailed level of information to meet the
                                                          specific needs of some sectors.
                                                  (Amendment 6)
                                                    ARTICLE 1
                                 Article 21(1) to (5) (Regulation (EEC) 3330/91)
 1. On the statistical medium to be                      1. On the statistical medium to be
 transmitted to the competent authorities,               transmitted to the competent authorities.
 goods shall be identified by the                        goods shall be identified by the
 subheadings of the current version of the               subheadings of the current version of the
nomenclature applicable to the trading of               Combined Nomenclature.
goods between Member States (Intrastat
Nomenclature).
2. The Intrastat Nomenclature shall be                  2. However, in accordance with the
a goods code nomenclature based on the                  detailed procedures set out in paragraph 3.
Harmonized System in force. In order to                 providers of statistical information maw in
take account of specific needs, it may                  the interests of reducing their statistical
contain a strictly limited number of                    burden, limit themselves to using the
subdivisions below Harmonized System                    Harmonized System. nomenclature to
subheading level. Any such subdivisions                 identify certain goods.
below Harmonized System subheading
level shall be identified by subheadings
of the current version of the Combined
Nomenclature.
                                                    4
 ---pagebreak--- 3. This nomenclature shall be adopted      3- The arrangements for the application
by the Commission in accordance with       of paragraph 2, and any other technical
Article 30, account being token of the     measures intended to facilitate the
results of the work of a group composed    classification of goods for statistics
of representatives of the providers and    relating to the trading of goods between
users of statistical information on the    Member States, shall be adopted by the
trading of goods.                          Commission in accordance with Article
                                           30, account being taken of the results of
                                           the work of a group composed of
                                           representatives of the providers and users
                                           of statistical information on the trading of
                                           goods.
4. The operational procedures of this      4. The operational procedures of this
group shall be adopted by the              group shall be adopted by the Commission
Commission in accordance with Article      in accordance with Article 30.
30.
i i To take account of their internal      Deleted
organization, providers of statistical
information may use the Combined
Nomenclature to identify goods on the
statistical data medium.
                                        S~
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                                                                    ISSN 0254-1475
                                                            COM(98) 269 final
                                              DOCUMENTS
EN                                                             17 06 02 10
                                    Catalogue number : CB-CO-98-283-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-78-35462-7
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
L-2985 Luxembourg
                                                 £