CELEX: 51992PC0352
Language: en
Date: 1992-09-03
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) on Community coordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                               COM(92) 352 final
                                               Brussels,3 September 1992
 I':*.
*£
                             Proposal for a
                      COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC)
                       on Community coordination
                     in drawing up business registers
                          for statistical purposes
                   (presented by the Commission)
 ---pagebreak---                                  Explanatory memorandum
1) All the Member States of the Community have business registers, which may differ widely
   in coverage, scope or quality of information.
   Harmonized registers are essential for the production of comparable statistics in the
   Member States.
2) Obviously, the establishment of the Single Market from 1993 onwards will further increase
   the need to improve the comparability of statistics produced to meet Community
   requirements and information on the structure of enterprises and groups of enterprises, and
   in particular on mergers, buy-outs or takeovers, will be essential. It should also be stressed
   that certain statistical data are not currently available in sectors with a large number of
   small and medium-sized enterprises, such as services, since such enterprises are not covered
   by a register used for statistical purposes.
3) The aim of the Community project is to promote in the Member States the introduction of
   national directories managed by the national statistical institute but compiled in an identical
   fashion and thus containing compatible information enabling consistent Community
   statistics to be obtained.
4) These registers will make it possible to institute and coordinate statistical surveys by
   providing instruments for monitoring the information which enterprises are asked to
   provide. Another important novel feature is that these registers will enable external trade
   data to be integrated into business statistics at intra-Community level by reference to the
   Intrastat file or more generally via links with customs files.
5) The introduction of this new tool can be expected to ease the administrative burden on
   enterprises substantially since, by linking separate administrative sources, it will make it
   possible to make better use of existing information.
6) The registers of legal units mentioned in the proposal can be used as a basis for the
   harmonized registers of businesses and local units required for Community statistics.
7) Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 authorizes the
   transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the
   European Communities. The present draft prohibits the transmission of information
   permitting direct identification of units.
8) The introduction of these registers meets the requirements of the relevant Commission
   departments and the national statistical offices. It will permit harmonious development of
   Community statistics in the Single Market.
 ---pagebreak---                                 Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC)
                                      on Community coordination
                                    in drawing up business registers
                                         for statistical purposes
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 proposal from the Commission,
Whereas the Single Market will increase the need to improve statistical comparability in order to
meet Community requirements and, in order to improve this comparability, common definitions and
descriptions have to be adopted for the field of enterprises and other relevant statistical units to be
covered;
Whereas registers have to be drawn up and updated in order to collect information on these units;
Whereas there is a growing need for information on the structure of enterprises and current
Community statistics are not able to meet this need;
Whereas business registers for statistical purposes are a necessary tool in keeping track of the
structural changes in the economy brought about by such operations as joint ventures, partnerships,
mergers, buy-
outs and takeovers;
Whereas the important role played by public undertakings in the national economies of the Member
States has been acknowledged, particularly in Commission Directive 80/723/EEC' ', which also
defines such undertakings in its Article 2, and whereas they should therefore be identified in
business registers;
Whereas some statistics are not currently available, particularly in sectors with many SMEs, such
as services, because a register of these businesses for statistical purposes does not exist;
Whereas business registers are one element in reconciling the conflicting requirements for increased
information on businesses and simplifying their administrative procedures, in particular by
collecting and exploiting existing information in administrative and legal registers, above all in the
case of SMEs, pursuant to Council Recommendation 90/2467EEO2 ' ;
Whereas the business register for statistical purposes represents a basic element of information
systems on businesses, enabling statistical surveys to be set up and coordinated by providing a
sampling base, possibilities of extrapolation and means of monitoring the replies from businesses,
 in particular those referred to in Directives 78/660/EEO 3 ' and 83/349/EEC^;
 Whereas the setting up of a new statistical collection system covering trade in goods and services
 between Member States necessitates a list of those persons required to give information, and it is
desirable to derive this register of persons required to give information from a central business
 register used for statistical purposes;
 (1)    OJ No L 195 of 29.7.1980
m        QI No L 141 of 2A9Q, p. 55
<3>     Of No L 222 of 14.8.78, p. 11
 (4)    Q* No L 193 of 18.7.83, p. 1
 ---pagebreak--- Whereas the business registers for statistical purposes are at different stages of development in each
Member State and the long and costly development of these registers can only be carried out in two
stages, the first of which must relate to harmonizing the basic units used in these registers in
accordance with an established timetable;
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1 Aims
1.      The Member States shall set up harmonized registers of legal units, local units and
        enterprises which can be used for statistical purposes. The registers of enterprises shall be
        drawn up from those of legal units, and the registers of local units shall be drawn up from
        those of enterprises.
Article 2 Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the terms listed below shall be defined as follows:
 1.      Legal units include:
                 - legal persons whose existence is recognized by law independently of the
                 individuals or institutions which may own them or are members of them;
                 - natural persons who are recognized as legal units in their own right;
         this regulation applies to legal units that exercise, wholly or partially, a productive activity.
2.       Enterprise: the enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units which is an
         organizational unit producing goods or services and which enjoys a certain degree of
         autonomy in decision-making, especially in the allocation of its current resources. An
         enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations.
         Hereinafter the connection between the enterprise and the legal unit is expressed as follows:
         - the enterprise is attached to one or more legal units;
         - the legal unit(s) is (are) responsible for the enterprise.
 3.      Local unit: the local unit is an enterprise or part thereof (e.g. a workshop, factory,
         warehouse, office, mine or depot) situated in a geographically identified place. At or from
         this place economic activity is carried out for which - save for certain exceptions - one or
         more persons work (if only part-time) for one and the same enterprise.
         Hereinafter the connection between the local unit and the enterprise is expressed as follows:
          - the local unit is dependent on an enterprise.
 ---pagebreak--- Article 3 Scope
1.      In accordance with the definitions given in Article 2, and subject to the limitations specified
        in this Article, registers shall be compiled of
        - all enterprises carrying out an economic activity contributing *r fhe ^^oss domestic
             product at market prices (GDP);
        - the legal units responsible for these enterprises;
        - the local units dependent on these enterprises.
     This requirement shall not, however, apply to households
         - insofar as the goods they produce are for own consumption;
         -   insofar as the services they produce involve the letting of own or leased property (Group
             70.2 of the General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities within the European
             Community (NACE Rev.l) drawn up by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 of 9
             October 1990<5)
         The inclusion of
         enterprises whose main activity falls within sections A, B or L of NACE Rev. 1,
         the legal units responsible for them,
         the local units dependent on them,
         shall be optional.
2.       The enterprises, legal units and local units referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be
         registered in accordance with the timetable and priorities set out in Annex 2.
Article 4 Register characteristics
The units appearing in the register shall be characterized by an identity number and the descriptive
details specified in Annex 1.
Articles Updating
1.        The following shall be updated at least once a year:
          a)      entries to, and removals from, the register;
          b)      the variables of subparagraphs b and f of Annex 1.1;
          c)      for units which are the subject of annual surveys, the variables of subparagraphs b,
                  c, d, e and h of Annex 1.3.
(5)    OJ No L 293of 24.ia.1990, p. I.
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                                     jr
         s a general rule, information obtained from administrative files or annual surveys shall be
        updated annually, other information being updated every four years.
2.       At the end of the first quarter of each calendar year, the Member States shall make a copy
        of the register as it stands on that date, and keep this copy for ten years for the purpose of
         ani'yr*.
Article 6 Access to information
When so requested by the Commission, the Member States shall
1.       carry out statistical analyses of the register and transmit the results to the Commission;
2.       transmit to Eurostat, in accordance with the procedures and limitations laid down in this
         Article, the information contained in the register and referred to in this Regulation,
         excluding information enabling direct identification of the units;
The information transmitted shall include data which are confidential under national legislation, and
the fact that they are confidential shall be explicitly mentioned.
When a majority of Member States so propose, a request to transmit information referred to in
paragraph 2 of this Article shall be submitted to the Committee referred to in Article 8 according to
the procedure set out in Article 9.
Article 7 Access to administrative and legal registers
Each National Statistical Institute shall be authorized, within its own Member State, to have access
to those administrative or legal files containing information covered by this Regulation and to
extract this information for statistical purposes.
Article 8 Committee
The rules of application for Articles 3, 4, 5 and 6 and for Annexes 1 and 2 of this Regulation, as
well as the measures required to adapt these rules, shall be decided by the Commission after
consulting the Statistical Programme Committee set up by Council Decision of 19 June 1989 (OJ L
 181, 28.6.1989, p.47), and in accordance with the procedure set out in the following Article.
Article 9 Procedure
 1.      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.
2.       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.
 ---pagebreak--- 3.      The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by the Commit JC.
        It shall inform the Committee of the manner in which its opinion has been taken into
        account.
Article 10
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirely and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels,
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                             }
                                          Annex 1
1. The record of a legal unit shall contain the following information:
   a.      identity number;
   b.      name, address (including postcode), and optionally: telephone, electronic mail and
           fax numbers and telex address;
   c.      requirement to publish annual accounts (YES/NO);
   d.      date of incorporation for legal persons or date of official recognition as an economic
           operator for natural persons;
   e.      date on which the legal unit ceases to be legally responsible for an enterprise;
   f.      legal form of the unit;
   g.      name and address of any non-resident legal unit, other than a natural person, which
           controls the legal unit;
   h.      identity number of the legal unit in the register which controls the legal unit;
   i.      character of "public undertaking" within the meaning of Commission Directive
           80/723/EEC (YES/NO) (for legal persons only);
   j.     reference to other associated files, including customs files, in which the legal unit is
           recorded and which contain information which can be used for statistical purposes;
   k.      reference to the INTRASTAT register.
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                  g"
The record of a local unit shall contain the following information:
a.     identity number;
b.     name, address and other identifying information as set out in paragraph l.b of this
        Annex;
c.     activity code at the 4-digit (class) level of NACE Rev. 1 ;
d.     secondary activities, if any, at the 4-digit level of NACE Rev. 1 (optional);
e.     size of labour force, as indicated in paragraph 3.e of this Annex;
f.     date of commencement of the activities whose codes are given in c. above;
g.     date of final cessation of activities;
h.      geographical location code (territorial units);
i.      reference to associated registers in which the local unit appears and which contain
        information which can be used for statistical purposes;
j.      identity number in the register of the enterprise on which the local unit is
        dependent;
k.      activity carried out in the local unit constituting an ancillary activity of the
        enterprise on which it depends (YES/NO).
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                                   T
The record of an enterprise shall contain the following information:
a.      identity number;
b.      identity number(s) of the legal unit(s) legally responsible for the enterprise;
c.     activity code of the enterprise at 4-digit (class) level of NACE Rev. 1.; the
        classification of an enterprise is determined by the class of NACE Rev. 1 in which
       the principal activity, or all the activities, of the enterprise is, or are, included;
d.      secondary activities, if any, at NACE 4-digit level, if they amount to 10% of the
       total for all activities of the gross value added at factor cost for each, or account for
        5% or more of national activity of this type; this point concerns only enterprises
        which are the subject of surveys;
e.      size: measured by the number of persons employed, or failing that by allocation to
        one of the following classes according to the number of persons engaged: 0; 1; 2;
        3-4; 5-9; 10-19; 20-49; 50-99; 100-149; 150-199; 200-249; 250-499; 500-999; 1
        000; 2 000; 3 000 etc.; persons working less than three-fifths of normal hours
        worked by full-time workers should be counted as one-half of a full-time worker; if
        the enterprise's workforce varies seasonally, it shall be allocated to the size class in
        which its annual average employment falls;
f.      date of commencement of activities of the enterprise;
g.      date of final cessation of activities of the enterprise;
h.      net turnover from the sale of goods and services (except for financial
        intermediaries); failing this, allocation to a size class defined as follows (in millions
        of ecus): 0+ -1; 1 + -2; 2+ -4; 4+ -5; 5+ -10; 10+ -20; 20+ -40; 40+ -50;
        50+ -100; 100 + -200; 200+ - 500; 500+ -1000; 1000+ - 5000; 5000+ (optional
        for turnover not exceeding ECU 2 million).
I.      net assets (assets after allowing for depreciation less liabilities - financial
         intermediaries only) (optional).
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                            to
                                               Annex 2
The legal units defined in Article 2 and described in Annex 1 shall be registered in the following
order of priority:
priority A: the information shall be entered in the register by 31 December 1993.
priority B: the information shall be entered in the register by 31 December 1995.
Enterprises attached to the above legal units, as defined in Article 2 and described in Annex 1, shall
be allowed an extra year for each level of priority. If an enterprise is attached to more than one
legal unit, the legal unit with the higest priority shall be taken to calculate the time limit for the
enterprise and the local units which are dependent on it.
Local units shall be allowed one year longer than the enterprises on which they are dependent.
In the table below:
0 < means "employs staff"
0 means "does not employ staff
                                                                                legal       natural
                                                                              persons       persons
                                                                                           0<      0
   A:  Agriculture, hunting and forestry (OPTIONAL)
   B:  Fishing (OPTIONAL)
                                                                                  A         B       B
   C:  Mining and quarrying
   D:   Manufacturing                                                             A         B       B
   E:   Electricity, gas and water supply                                         A         A       B
   F:   Construction                                                              A         A       B
   G:   Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor véhicules,                    A         A       B
        motorcycles and personal and household goods                              A         A       B
   H: Hotels and restaurants                                                      A         A       B
   I: Transport, storage and communications                                       A         A       B
   J: Financial intermediation                                                    A         A       B
   K: Real estate, renting and business activities                                A         A       B
   L: Public administration and defence;                                          A         A       B
        compulsory social security                                                A         A       B
    M: Education                                                                  A         A       B
    N: Health and social work                                                     A         A       B
   O: Other community, social and personal service activities                      A        A       B
 ---pagebreak---                                                                       -f"?
                           FINANCIAL STATEMENT
Draft Council Regulation (EEC) on Community coordination in drawing up
business registers for statistical purposes
1.   Title of operation
     Community support for the setting-up, in the Member States, of
     harmonized business registers for statistical purposes. This
     operation forms part of the pluriannual operations relating to
     statistical information policy.
2. Budget headings involved
     - Financial prospects - Heading 3. Internal policies.
     - Subsection B-5 - Consumers, internal market, industry and
       innovation.
     - Chapter B5-60 - Statistical information policy connected with the
       completion of the internal market, the economic and monetary
       environment and Community policies.
     Line B5 - 600 - operating appropriations (former B5-6000, 10, 10
     partial, 20, 30)
3.   Legal basis
     Article 213 of the Treaty
4.   Description of operation
4.1 Specific objectives of operation
The aim of the Community project is to promote the setting-up, in the
Member States, of national business registers managed by the national
statistical institutes, but compiled in an identical way, so that they
contain data which are compatible and can therefore be used to provide
meaningful Community statistics.
These registers will allow statistical surveys to be carried out and
 coordinated, and at the same time will constitute a means of monitoring
what is required from the enterprises.
 ---pagebreak---                                                                           *l
A new feature, which should be emphasized, is that these registers will
allow external trade statistics to be incorporated into business
statistics, either at intra-Community level by reference to the
INTRASTAT records, or more generally by using customs records.
This operation will contribute to accommodating the significant
increase in requirements for harmonized data which the Community must
meet, with regard to;
     the operation of the Single Market, which calls for a high degree
     of transparency in the structures and flows of industrial and
     service enterprises in all Member States, including the new system
     of statistics on trade in goods and services between the Member
     States after 1992.
     the provision of statistical information to enterprises which will
     enable them to become more competitive both in the internal market
     and vis-à-vis the rest of the world.
4.2 Duration
     One-off operations
4.3 Target population
     - The beneficiaries of this operation are: the Community
        Institutions and the governments of the Member States.
5.   Classification of expenditure or of revenue
5.1 NCE
5.2 DA
5.3 Type of income envisaged: NONE
 6.  Type of expenditure or revenue
 6.1 100% subsidy
     NO -     the Community's contribution represents only a small part
              of the actual cost of collecting the data, i.e. some 1 to
              5%, since the Community's statistical activities are
              decentralized to a very large extent. Nevertheless, the
              expenditure is essential to provide an incentive for
              standardizing the data collected, processing them and
              forwarding them to Eurostat.
 6.2 Subsidy for cofinancing with other sources in the public and/or
     private sector
      YES -   cofinancing from the public sector (budgets of the national
              statistical services).
 ---pagebreak---                                                                         Al
     6.3      Interest subsidy
     NO
6.4 Other
     NONE
6.5 Should the operation prove an economic success, is there provision
     for all or part of the Community's financial contribution to be
     reimbursed?
     NO
6.6 Hill the proposed operation cause any change in the level of
     revenue?
Indirectly, the statistical work on the own resources indicators (GDP
in this case) may, through its results, reduce the general level of the
budget.
7.    Financial impact
7.1     Method of calculating total cost of operation:
        - 1992 Budget:    ECU   200.000
        - 1993 PDB:       ECU   800.000
        - Total           ECU 1.000.000
 7.2 Breakdown of operation                 - operating appropriations
      B5-60
 The details of appropriations by policy are given in Annex 4
         BREAKDOWN                  1992 BUDGET     1993 PDB
      1. The single market          ECU 200 000     ECU 800.000
      TOTAL                         ECU 200.000     ECU 800.000
 ---pagebreak---                                                                           4*f
7.3 Administrative expenditure directly linked to this operation
     NONE
7.4 Indicative schedule of commitment appropriations
Operating appropriations and support appropriations - Chapter B5-60
                                                •
                                                              •
   INDICATIVE       PDB
   BUDGET                                         PROGRAMMING
   1992             1993       1994            1995             1996
  ECU 200.000 ECU 800.000     ECU 800.000    ECU 800.000   ECU 800.000
8.   What anti-fraud measures are planned in the proposal for the
     operation?
a)   For the contracts and agreements entered into by the Commission,
     payment is solely on results.
b)   The statistical information is considered to be an objective
      instrument for evaluating Community action programmes and thus
     contributes to consolidating the anti-fraud provisions.
9.   Elements of cost/efficiency analysis
 9.1.   Objectives
 The specific objectives mentioned in 4.1. are linked to the provisions
 of the Treaty relating to: operation of the Single Market.
 9.2.   Grounds for the operation
 1    to improve the balance between the demand for new statistics and
      budgetary resources by counting on gains in productivity and
      developing tools which will allow the same volume of data to be
      obtained with fewer resources;
 2    to reduce the time required to draw up the data and forward them to
      the Commission, thus increasing their usefulness to policy makers;
 ---pagebreak---                                                                          AS
3    to improve the quality and reliability of the data produced by the
    Member States, so as to provide users with top-quality statistics
    on which they can take appropriate policy decisions.
4    to reduce the workload on the units under survey, and in particular
    the enterprises which have to reply to the statistical
     questionnaires.
     As regards the operation of the Single Market, the Commission
     proposes that a network of harmonized Community business registers
     should be set up to serve as a basis for all business statistics in
     the Commumity. This harmonized register could be used to prepare
     the sampling bases for surveys without the need to transpose the
     national tools, which are not always completely suitable for
     collecting Community statistics. In this way, the national systems
     will be able to use the same system for all Community surveys,
     which will save time in drawing up the data and prdoduce more
     reliable Community statistics. Lastly, this project will yield
     considerably more information on enterprises, without the need for
     new surveys, thus reducing the burden placed on enterprises by the
     obligation to reply to statistical questionnaires.
9.2.1. Cost:
     This operation will be financed mainly by the Member States
      (Section 1, item 6.1), which have a well-established structure for
     collecting and processing data. If the Commission had to finance
     this programme in full, the cost would be extremely high for a less
     reliable product. The Community's contribution covers only a small
     proportion of the real cost.
     The number of surveys and compilations from administrative
     registers and files has grown considerably in recent years.
9.2.2. Spin-off effect:
     the results of this operation will contribute to improving the
     statistical information used in work on the gross national product
      (GNP) of the Member States;
     the system for collecting statistical information is very
     decentralized, the national systems having a responsibility within
     each Member State. The Community statistical programme is becoming
      an integral part of the national statistical programmes, thereby
      contributing to the establishment of a European statistical area;
      the spin-off effect towards a European statistical area will lead
      to further integration of the national statistical systems at
      Community level.
 9.2.3. Multiplier effects:
 ---pagebreak---                                                                           /iG
     the Community statistical programme generates an impetus within the
     budgets of the national statistical systems, which make a great
     contribution to implementing it;
     benefits for the world of research and the universities, which gain
     unique scientific data for socio-economic studies and analyses.
9.3.   Monitoring and evaluation of the operation
9.3.1. Performance indicators selected:
The performance indicators selected for evaluating progress are of two
kinds, viz.:
budgetary:    comparing the plan with the execution of the budget.
programming: to compare the statistical output with the existing
programme and with the estimated budget for its execution.
A. execution of the budget
                              Appropriations       Appropriations
                              committed            paid
           1992                    200 000               100 000
           1993                    800.000               500.000
           1994                    800.000               800.000
           1995                     800.000              800.000
           1996                     800.000              300.000
   Following years                        -              400.000
9.3.2. Procedures and frequency of evaluation
The statistical programme is continuously monitored by a TBPS
 (Statistical Programme Monitoring File), which lays down for each
operation (219), and in particular the present one, the operational
objectives and resources required on the basis of the
 programming/execution principle. At the beginning of each year
 Eurostat produces a report on the progress of its programme during the
 preceding year. This report falls into three parts, as follows:
      the first summarizes, for each policy, the main achievements in the
      year;
      the second describes, for each operation, the objective laid down
      and the results achieved;
      the third gives statistics on the utilization of human, budgetary,
      computer and administrative resources during the preceding year.
 ---pagebreak---                                                                          qjft
                                                                      1*
The Council Resolution of 19 June 1989 on the Statistical programme of
the European Communities (1989 to 1992) requests the Commission to
submit a final report on the implementation of the Statistical
programme by June 1993. The Commission intends to have this report
drawn up by leading representatives of socio-professional, scientific
and government circles in order to ensure a high degree of objectivity.
9.4.   Consistency with the financial programme
9.4.1. Is the operation included in the financial progamme of the DG
        for the years concerned?
YES: financial programme 1993-1997 - DG34
9.4.2. To which more general objective laid down in the DG's financial
        progamming does the aim of the proposed operation correspond?
The single general aim represented by the implementation of the
Statistical Programme of the European Communities (1993 to 1997)
 (currently being drawn up).
10. Administrative expenditure (Part A of the Budget)
10.1. Will the proposed operation involve an increase in the number of
       Commission staff?
NO
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                                     0%
                        IMPACT OF THE PROPOSAL ON ENTERPRISES
                  and particularly on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
     Proposal for a Council Regulation on Community coordination of the development of business
     registers for statistical purposes.
Reference number (Register):
The proposal
1.      Administrative burden and information requirements
        Although differing from one Member State to another, national legislation generally
        restricts the access by the National Statistical Institutes to national administrative and legal
        files containing information which could be used for statistical purposes. This results in a
        costly administrative burden on enterprises, and particularly SMEs, to which they often
        object since questionnaires from a variety of sources cover similar subjects. Thus, the
        information requested from enterprises is often redundant at national level and at the same
        time disparate at Community level, which means that it is impossible to draw up statistics
        which are comparable and, above all, can be integrated at this level.
        The need for harmonized information on enterprises, which can be used for statistical
        purposes, will increase still further with the establishment of the single market.
        The Commission has frequently mentioned the need to lighten the administrative burden on
        SMEs, and in particular Council Recommendation No 90/246/EEC relates to the
        implementation of a policy of administrative simplification in favour of small and medium-
        sized enterprises in the Member States.
        Harmonized business registers are one way of lightening the administrative burden. They
        can only be produced under Community legislation guaranteeing the statistical authorities
        access to the relevant information already contained in national administrative and legal
        files and defining the contents of such registers with a view to harmonizing them.
2.      The enterprises concerned
        The proposal is aimed at listing in due course all enterprises established on the economic
        territory of the Member States, covering all sectors of activity corresponding to the 4-digit
         NACE codes with the following exceptions:
         1)       households as regards both production which does not form the subject of market
                  transactions and renting, leasing and hiring activities;
         2)       extra-territorial bodies;
         3)       agriculture, hunting, forestry, fishing, public administration and defence: these
                  sectors are optional.
 3.      The administrative burden on enterprises
         The proposed Regulation does not recommend any specific survey and would thus not
         increase the administrative burden if it came into force.
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                              i9
   The registers, drawing on information in existing administrative and legal registers, would
   obviate the need for enterprises to answer the same questions several times. They would
   become sources of statistical information in turn and would permit the use of high-level
   techniques such as panels, which, through judicious extrapolation, substantially reduce the
   volume of surveys.
   The European dimension of these registers, which use the same units, have the same
   characteristics and refer to a common classification of activities, would make it possible to
   provide enterprises with results which cannot at present be obtained by comparing non-
   harmonized national statistics.
   This would give enterprises a better insight into the European market as a whole and
   provide them with an overview of national markets in their sector.
4.  Economic impact on employment, investment, the establishment of enterprises and
   competitiveness
   It is very difficult to evaluate the possible effects which an improved knowledge of the
   market resulting from harmonized statistics together with a simplification of administrative
   procedures would have on the establishment of enterprises or on employment. Any such
    influence could only be indirect.
5.  Provisions specific to SMEs
   The item "turnover" would be optional for turnover not exceeding ECU 2 million.
6.  Concertation with the two sides of industry
    On 28 November 1991, at one of the meetings arranged by DG XXIII for consultations
    with the professional organizations representing SMEs at Community level, a Eurostat
    representative presented the draft Regulation to the main organizations (listed in the
    Annex). Questions were raised about a possible new data collection, but when this was
    discounted, the draft Regulation was approved by the professional organizations.
    Although, broadly speaking, it approves the general thrust of the draft Regulation, the
    UNICE sent DG XXIII and Eurostat comments about the contents of the registers (cf.
    ZT/BV/nm/1.6.C.l. of 11 March 1992). The Director-General of Eurostat emphasized in
    his reply that the objective was to harmonize concepts already used by the Member States
    and not to demand new types of data which would be used for purposes other than statistics
    (cf. DG34-8788 of 9 April 1992).
                                          -2
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                 2-o
                                                                        ISSN 0254-1475
                                                                 COM(92) 352 final
                                                        DOCUMENTS
 EN                                                                               17
                                  Catalogue number : CB-CO-92-366-EN-C
                                                               ISBN 92-77-47007-0
( office for Official Publications of the European Communities
lv-2985 Luxembourg