CELEX: 52002PC0558
Language: en
Date: 2002-10-15
Title: Proposal for a Council Regulation on the harmonisation of Gross National Income at market prices ("GNI Regulation").

25.2.2003             EN                          Official Journal of the European Union                                    C 45 E/61
               Proposal for a Council Regulation on the harmonisation of Gross National Income at market prices
                                                             (‘GNI Regulation’)
                                                              (2003/C 45 E/06)
                                               COM(2002) 558 final — 2002/0245(CNS)
                                           (Submitted by the Commission on 15 October 2002)
                                                  EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
               1. Gross National Product (GNP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) play a major role in the own resource
                  system and various Community policies, notably since the fourth GNP resource was set up in 1988.
                  This makes it necessary to reinforce the comparability, reliability and exhaustiveness of Member States'
                  GNP data.
               2. Up to now, GNP calculations were based on the former European System of Integrated Economic
                  Accounts, the so-called ESA 79. Based on a Commission proposal, the Council adopted GNP Directive
                  89/130/EEC, Euratom setting up a procedure to assess the comparability, reliability and exhaustiveness
                  of GNP. This procedure is centred on the GNP Committee in which Member States and the Commission
                  co-operate closely in order to further harmonise and improve the quality of GNP.
               3. Starting from the budgetary year 2002, the new European System of Accounts (the ESA 95) will be
                  used to calculate GNP (now called GNI or Gross National Income) according to Decision 2000/597/EC,
                  Euratom on own resources. It is therefore necessary to redefine the legal framework for harmonisation
                  and improvement work on GNI, taking account of ESA 95 specificities.
               4. This proposal for a Council GNI Regulation addresses this objective. Following the example of the
                  current GNP Directive, this proposal:
                  — defines the methods of calculation of GNI based on ESA 95,
                  — specifies Member States' obligations concerning data transmission,
                  — sets up the GNI Committee as the new forum for co-operation between Member States and the
                      Commission concerning verification and improvement work on GNI.
               5. This proposal for a Regulation has been thoroughly discussed with Member States' representatives in
                  the GNP Committee.
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,                                        Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
                                                                          Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,
Community,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic              Whereas:
Energy Community,
                                                                           (1) The increasing share of the Community's own resource
Having regard to Council Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom of                      based on the gross national product at market prices
29 September 2000 on the system of the Communities' own                        (hereinafter referred to as GNPmp) of the Member
resources (1), and in particular Article 8(2) thereof,                         States, makes it necessary to further reinforce the
                                                                               comparability, reliability and exhaustiveness of this
(1) OJ L 253, 7.10.2000, p. 42.                                                aggregate.
 ---pagebreak--- C 45 E/62              EN                          Official Journal of the European Union                                          25.2.2003
  (2) These data are also an important analytical tool for the               (9) In accordance with Article 2 of Council Decision
      coordination of national economic policies and for                          1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the
      various Community policies.                                                 procedures for the exercise of implementing powers
                                                                                  conferred on the Commission (3), measures for the
                                                                                  implementation of this Regulation should be adopted by
                                                                                  use of the advisory procedure provided for in Article 3 of
                                                                                  that Decision.
  (3) For own resource purposes, Council Decision
      2000/597/EC, Euratom states that GNPmp is equal to
      gross national income at market prices (hereinafter
      referred to as GNI) as provided by the Commission in
      application of the European system of national and                   (10) The Statistical Programme Committee (SPC) has been
      regional accounts (hereinafter referred to as ESA 95) in                    consulted in accordance with Article 3 of Decision
      accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 (1).                     89/382/EEC, Euratom (4),
  (4) GNI data must be comparable. These data can be                       HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
      comparable only if the relevant definitions and accounting
      rules of ESA 95 are complied with. For that purpose, the
      assessment procedures and the basic data actually used
      should permit the correct application of the definitions                                          CHAPTER I
      and accounting rules of ESA 95.
                                                                           Definition and calculation of gross national income at
                                                                                                      market prices
                                                                                                         Article 1
  (5) The sources and methods used to compile GNI must be
      reliable. This means that sound techniques should be                 1.      Gross National Income at market prices (GNI) and Gross
      applied to robust and suitable basic statistics as much as           Domestic Product at market prices (GDP) shall be defined in
      possible.                                                            accordance with the European System of National and Regional
                                                                           Accounts (ESA 95).
  (6) GNI data must be exhaustive. This means that they should
      take account also of the activities that are not reported in         2.      GDP is the final result of the production activity of
      statistical surveys or to fiscal, social and other adminis-          resident producer units. It can be defined in three ways:
      trative authorities. Improved GNI coverage presupposes
      developing suitable statistical bases and assessment
      procedures and making adequate adjustments.
                                                                           (a) GDP is the sum of gross value added of the various insti-
                                                                                tutional sectors or the various industries plus taxes and less
                                                                                subsidies on products (which are not allocated to sectors
                                                                                and industries). It is also the balancing item in the total
  (7) In order to fulfil its mission of providing GNI data for                  economy production account.
      own resource purposes, the Commission shall take
      measures aimed at improving the comparability, reliability
      and exhaustiveness of Member States' GNI.
                                                                           (b) GDP is the sum of final uses of goods and services by
                                                                                resident institutional units (actual final consumption and
                                                                                gross capital formation) plus exports and minus imports
  (8) Council Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom of 13 February                      of goods and services.
      1989 on the harmonization of the compilation of gross
      national product at market prices (2) has set up a
      procedure to verify and assess the comparability, relia-
      bility and exhaustiveness of GNP within the GNP
      Committee in which Member States and the Commission                  (c) GDP is the sum of uses in the total economy generation of
      co-operate closely. This procedure should be adjusted to                  income account (compensation of employees, taxes on
      take account of the use of ESA 95 GNI for the purposes                    production and imports less subsidies, gross operating
      of own resources.                                                         surplus and mixed income of the total economy).
(1) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1.                                            (3) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.
(2) OJ L 49, 21.2.1989, p. 26.                                             (4) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.
 ---pagebreak--- 25.2.2003             EN                        Official Journal of the European Union                                       C 45 E/63
3.     GNI represents total primary income receivable by                2.     Where reference is made to this paragraph, the advisory
resident institutional units: compensation of employees, taxes          procedure laid down in Article 3 of Decision 1999/468/EC
on production and imports less subsidies, property income               shall apply, in compliance with Article 7(3) thereof.
(receivable less payable), gross operating surplus and gross
mixed income. GNI equals GDP minus primary income
payable by resident units to non-resident units plus primary            3.     The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.
income receivable by resident units from the rest of the world.
                                                                                                    Article 5
                           CHAPTER II
                                                                        1.     The Commission shall verify the sources and methods
    Forwarding of GNI data and additional information                   used by Member States to calculate GNI. Measures to make
                                                                        GNI data more comparable, reliable and exhaustive shall be
                             Article 2                                  adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in
                                                                        Article 4 paragraph 2.
1.     Member States shall establish GNI in accordance with
Article 1 in the context of regular national accounting.
                                                                        2.     The Committee referred to in Article 4 shall examine
                                                                        questions raised by its Chairman, either on his own initiative
                                                                        or at the request of the representative of a Member State,
2.     Before 15 September each year, Member States shall
                                                                        relating to the implementation of this Regulation, in particular
provide the Commission (Eurostat), in the context of national
                                                                        with regard to:
accounting procedures, with figures for aggregate GNI and its
components, according to the definitions referred to in
Article 1. Totals for GDP and its components may be
presented according to the three approaches mentioned in                (a) Compliance each year with the definitions referred to in
Article 1, paragraph 2. The figures provided shall cover the                Article 1.
preceding year and any changes made to the figures for
previous years.
                                                                        (b) The examination each year of the data forwarded under the
                                                                            terms of Article 2(2) and the information forwarded under
                                                                            the terms of Article 2(3) concerning the statistical sources
3.     When they communicate the data foreseen in para-                     and the procedures for calculating GNI and its components.
graph 2, Member States shall transmit a report on the                       This examination shall lead to a GNI Committee's opinion
quality of GNI data to the Commission (Eurostat). The report                on the appropriateness of Member States' GNI data for own
shall supply the information necessary to show how the                      resource purposes with respect to reliability, comparability
aggregate was reached, and in particular describe any                       and exhaustiveness. This opinion will indicate the main
significant changes in the procedures and basic statistics used             documents on which the examination is based. Reliability,
and explain the revisions made to earlier GNI estimates. The                comparability and exhaustiveness of GNI and its
content and format of this report shall follow the guidelines               components must be assessed taking account of the cost-
laid down by the Commission after consulting the committee                  benefit principle.
referred to in Article 4.
                                                                            In this context, the cost-benefit principle entails a
                                                                            judgement on the potential size and significance of
                             Article 3
                                                                            specific activities or transactions based on whatever
Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat), in                   information is available. This information is often quali-
accordance with the guidelines laid down by the latter after                tative, though it may be quantitative in some cases. The
consulting the committee referred to in Article 4, with an                  Commission (Eurostat) examines the comparability in the
inventory of the procedures and basic statistics used to                    treatment of similar cases in the Member States and reports
calculate GNI and its components according to ESA 95.                       to the GNI Committee on all cases where the cost-benefit
Member States shall improve and update their inventory                      principle is considered to apply. The application of this
according to these guidelines.                                              principle should avoid committing disproportionate
                                                                            resources to calculate insignificant items.
                           CHAPTER III                                  (c) Expressing its views, without prejudice to Article 4, on
                                                                            Commission proposals aiming to improve GNI calculations,
     Procedures and checks on the calculation of GNI                        including interpreting ESA 95 definitions where necessary
                                                                            and quantifying the impact of these proposals on GNI.
                             Article 4
1.     The Commission shall be assisted by a committee,
referred to as the GNI Committee, composed of representatives           3.     The Committee shall dedicate particular efforts to the
of the Member States and chaired by the representative of the           improvement of Member States' GNI compilation practices
Commission.                                                             and to the dissemination of best practices in this domain.
 ---pagebreak--- C 45 E/64             EN                          Official Journal of the European Union                                       25.2.2003
It shall also deal with questions relating to the revision of GNI                                   CHAPTER IV
data and the problem of the exhaustiveness of GNI.
                                                                                                 Final provisions
                                                                                                     Article 7
It shall, if necessary, suggest to the Commission measures to
make GNI data more comparable and more reliable.                          Before the end of 2005, the Commission shall submit a report
                                                                          on the application of this Regulation to the European
                                                                          Parliament and to the Council.
                             Article 6
                                                                                                     Article 8
Without prejudice to the inspections foreseen in Article 19 of
Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 (1), joint                 This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day
GNI information visits may, where deemed appropriate, be                  following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
carried out to Member States by the Commission's services                 European Communities.
and representatives from other Member States in consultation
with the Member States visited. The participation of Member               This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly
States in these visits is voluntary.                                      applicable in all Member States.
(1) OJ L 130, 31.5.2000, p. 1.