CELEX: 51988PC0810
Language: en
Date: 1989-01-11
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) ON THE STATISTICS RELATING TO THE TRADING OF GOODS BETWEEN MEMBER STATES

18. 2. 89                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 41/5
                                                             II
                                                      (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
             Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on the statistics relating to the trading of goods
                                                  between Member States
                                              COM(88) 810 final — SYN 181
                                    (Submitted by the Commission on 19 January 1989)
                                                        (89/C 41/05)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                          Whereas until the end of 1992 statistics relating to the
                                                                  trading of goods between Member States will benefit
                                                                  from the formalities, documentation and controls which
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
                                                                  the customs authorities, for their own requirements or
Economic Community, and in particular Article 100A
                                                                  for those of other departments, prescribe for consignors
thereof,
                                                                  and consignees of goods in circulation between Member
                                                                  States, but which will disappear through the elimination
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                of physical frontiers and tax barriers;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,
                                                                  Whereas it will consequently be necessary to collect
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                  directly from the consignors and consignees the data
Social Committee,                                                 necessary to compile statistics relating to the trading of
                                                                  goods between Member States, using methods and tech-
                                                                  niques which will ensure that they are exhaustive,
Whereas abolishing physical barriers between Member               reliable and up-to-date, without giving rise for the
States is necessary to complete the internal market;              parties concerned, in particular for small and
whereas a satisfactory level of information on the trading        medium-sized businesses, to a burden out of proportion
of goods between Member States should thus be ensured             to the results which users of the said statistics can
by means other than those involving checks, even                  reasonably expect;
indirect ones, at internal frontiers;
"Whereas an analysis of the situation of the Community
and the Member States after 1992 reveals that a number            Whereas related legislation must henceforth apply to all
of specific requirements will persist as regards infor-            statistics relating to the trading of goods between
 mation on trading of goods between Member States;                 Member States, including those statistics which are not
                                                                   to be harmonized or made compulsory by the
                                                                   Community before 1993, in order to prevent Member
Whereas these requirements are not of a macroeconomic              States from replacing traditional procedures by new
 nature, unlike those relating, for example, to national           procedures which, while effective, would however run
 accounts or the balance of payments, and many of them             the risk of disparity; whereas, in order to meet all the
can not be met by means of highly aggregated data                  information needs likely to arise through the implemen-
 alone, whereas matters such as trade policy, sectoral             tation of the internal market, such legislation must be
 analyses, competition rules, the management and                   able to encompass all goods circulating within the
 guidance of agriculture and fisheries, regional devel-            Community, whatever their customs and tax status or the
 opment, energy projections and the organization of                cause of their being moved;
 transport must on the other hand be based on statistical
 documentation providing the most up-to-date, accurate
 and detailed view of the internal market;
                                                                   Whereas the statistics relating to the trading of goods
 Whereas it is precisely information on the trading of             between Member States are a function of the movements
 goods between Member States which will contribute to              of goods involved; whereas they may include data on
 measuring the progress of the internal market, thereby            transport, which can be collected simultaneously with the
 speeding up its completion and consolidating it on a              data specific to each of these categories of statistics, thus
 sound basis;                                                      lightening the overall statistical burden;
 ---pagebreak--- No C 41/6                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                   18. 2. 89
Whereas private individuals will derive obvious                 Whereas the Commission should be assisted by a
advantages from the approximation of indirect tax rates;        committee to ensure the regular cooperation of the
whereas it is necessary to ensure that these advantages         Member States, in particular to resolve the problems
are not diminished in their eyes by requirements to             which are bound to arise in connection with information
provide information on purchases made by such indi-             on the trading of goods between Member States
viduals in a Member State other than the Member State           following the numerous innovations introduced by the
of residence; whereas the provision of such information         new collection system;
would undoubtedly impose an obligation which private
individuals would consider at the least inconvenient and
which it would be impossible to enforce without                 Whereas the relevant Community legislation should be
employing excessive measures; whereas it is therefore           implemented systematically by provisions adopted either
reasonable not to regard private individuals as                 by the Commission or by the Council;
responsible for providing such information, apart from
suitable periodic surveys;
                                                                Whereas some of the provisions of this Regulation must
                                                                enter into force without delay so that the Community
                                                                and its Member States can prepare for the practical
Whereas the new collection system to be introduced is to        consequences which it will bring as from 1 January 1993;
apply to all statistics relating to the trading of goods
between Member States; whereas it must therefore be
defined first in a general context involving new concepts,      Whereas one of these consequences is firstly that Council
particularly as regards the scope, the party responsible        Regulation (EEC) No 2954/85 of 22 October 1985
for providing the information and the transmission of           laying down certain measures for the standardization
data;                                                           and simplification of the statistics of trade between
                                                                Member States (') must be repealed, and secondly that
                                                                Council Regulation (EEC) No 1736/75 of 24 June 1975
                                                                on the external trade statistics of the Community and
Whereas the real economy of the system resides in the
                                                                statistics of trade between Member States (2), as last
use of related administrative networks, and in particular
                                                                amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1629/88 (5), will no
that of the VAT authorities, to provide the statistical
                                                                longer be applicable to statistics relating to the trading of
services with a minimum degree of indirect checks
                                                                goods between Member States;
without thereby increasing the burden on taxpayers;
whereas nonetheless it is necessary to avoid confusion
arising in the minds of the parties responsible for
providing information between their statistical and their       HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
tax obligations;
                                                                                          TITLE I
Whereas it is vital to use existing sources to compile                              General provisions
basic documentation in each Member State regarding
consignors and consignees of goods which are covered                                      Article 1
by statistics of trade between Member States, so as to
identify, in preparation for 1992, the main parties             The Community and its Member States shall draw up
concerned and to develop modern data transmission               statistics relating to the trading of goods between
techniques with their assistance;                                Member States in accordance with the rules laid down
                                                                by this Regulation.
Whereas implementation alone will reveal the loopholes
or weaknesses in the new collection system; whereas                                       Article 2
improvements and simplifications should be introduced            For the purposes of this Regulation            and   without
within a reasonable period of time in order to prevent its       prejudice to any individual provisions:
defects from having negative repercussions on the
trading of goods between Member States;
                                                                 (a) 'trading of goods between Member States' means
                                                                     any movement of goods from one Member State to
                                                                     another;
Whereas, among the statistics relating to the trading of
goods between Member States, statistics of trade
between Member States must receive priority, for                 (b) 'goods' means all movable property;
obvious reasons of importance and continuity; whereas,
however, substantial adjustments must be made to these           (c) 'Community goods' means goods:
statistics in order to take account of the new conditions
on the internal market after 1992; whereas it will be
necessary to review inter alia the definition of their           (') OJ No L 285, 25. 10. 1985, p. 1.
content, the goods classification applicable to them and         O OJ No L 183, 14. 7. 1975, p. 3.
the list of data to be collected to compile them;                (') OJ No L 147, 14. 6. 1988, p. 1.
 ---pagebreak--- 18. 2. 89                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No C 41/7
     — entirely obtained in the customs territory of the            Community, whether or not they subsequently enter the
          Community, without the addition of goods from             territory of a non-member State.
          non-member countries or territories which are
          not part of the customs territory of the
          Community,                                                2.     Paragraph 1 shall apply both to non-Community
                                                                    and Community goods whether or not they are the
     — from countries or territories not forming part of            subject of a commercial transaction.
          the customs territory of the Community which
          have been released for free circulation in a
          Member State,                                                                         Article 4
     — obtained in the customs territory of the
                                                                    1.      Of the goods referred to in Article 3:
          Community either from the goods referred to
          exclusively in the second indent or from the
          goods referred to in the first and second indents;        (a) shall be the subject of transit statistics: those which
                                                                          are transported, with or without transhipment, across
(d) 'non-Community goods' means goods other than                          a Member State without being stored there for
     those referred to in (c). Without prejudice to the                   reasons not inherent in their transport;
     agreements concluded with non-member countries
     for the implementation of the Community transit                (b) shall be the subject of storage statistics: those
     arrangements, goods which, while fulfilling the                      referred to in Article 2, second paragraph, of Regu-
     conditions laid down in (c), are reintroduced into the               lation (EEC) No 1736/75 (EEC), as well as those
     customs territory of the Community after export                      which enter or leave storage facilities determined by
     therefrom are also considered as non-Community                       the Commission in accordance with Article 29;
     goods;
                                                                     (c) shall be the subject of statistics of trade between
(e) 'Member State', when the term is used in the                          Member States: those which do not meet the
     geographical sense, means its statistical territory;                 conditions of (a) and (b) or which, while meeting
                                                                          either of those conditions, are expressly singled out
(f) 'statistical territory of a Member State' means the                   by this Regulation or by the Commission pursuant to
     territory occupied by this Member State within the                   Article 29;
      statistical territory of the Community, as this latter is
      defined in Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No                    (d) the Council, on a proposal from the Commission,
      1736/75;                                                            shall determine the goods that are to be the subject
                                                                          of other statistics relating to the trading of goods
(g) 'goods in free movement on the internal market of                     between Member States.
      the Community' means goods complying with the
      conditions or the market of any Member State;
                                                                     2.     Without prejudice to Community provisions on
                                                                     statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods, the
(h) 'goods produced in a specific Member State' means,               data on the movement of goods subject to the statistics
      in addition to goods produced there, compensating              referred to in paragraph 1 shall be included, as required,
      Community goods which have undergone processing                in the list of data relating to each of these categories of
      there;                                                         statistics on the conditions and terms laid down by this
                                                                     Regulation or by the Commission pursuant to Article 29.
 (i) 'intermediary' means any natural or legal person
      situated in the chain of trade in goods upstream or
      downstream, as the case may be, of the party                                               Article 5
      responsible for providing statistical information;
                                                                     Without prejudice to Article 15, private individuals shall
                                                                     be exempt from the obligations implied by the prepa-
 (j) 'private individual' means any natural person not                ration of the statistics referred to in Article 4.
      liable to account for VAT in connection with a given
      movement of goods.
                                                                                                 TITLE II
                              Article 3
                                                                                      Statistical collection system
 1.     All goods which move from one Member State to                                         (INTRASTAT)
 another shall be the subject of statistics relating to the
 trading of goods between Member States.
                                                                                                 Article 6
 In addition to the goods which move within the stat-                 With a view to compiling the statistics relating to the
 istical territory of the Community, goods shall be                   trading of goods between Member States, a statistical
 considered as moving from one Member State to another                collection system shall be set up, hereinafter referred to
 if, in so doing, they cross the external frontier of the             as the INTRASTAT system.
 ---pagebreak---  No C 41/8                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                18. 2. 89
                          Article 7                             The party responsible for providing information shall
                                                                provide this third party with all the information
 1.    The INTRASTAT system shall be applied in the
                                                                 necessary to fulfil his obligations as party responsible.
Member States whenever they are deemed to be partner
countries in the trading of goods between Member States
                                                                2.    On the first occasion that a party responsible for
by virtue of the provisions of paragraph 4.
                                                                providing information who is not liable to account for
                                                                VAT transfers this task of providing information to a
2.     The INTRASTAT system shall be applied to the             third party, he shall make this fact known without delay
goods referred to in Article 3:                                 to the competent national departments, unless these
                                                                departments have previously specifically exempted him
(a) which are in free movement on the internal market           from the obligation to make the fact known.
     of the Community;
                                                                3.    If an intermediary is immediately downstream or
(b) which, since they may move on the internal market           upstream of a party responsible for providing infor-
     of the Community only after completion of the              mation who is not liable to account for VAT, then the
     formalities prescribed by Community legislation on         intermediary shall pass to him a copy of the instructions
     the circulation of goods, are expressly designated         to parties responsible for providing information which
     either by this Regulation or by the Commission             are supplied to intermediaries for this purpose by the
     pursuant to Article 29.                                    competent national departments.
3.     The collection of data on the goods referred to in       4.    The implementing rules for paragraphs 1, 2 and 3
Article 3 to which the INTRASTAT system does not apply          shall be laid down by the Commission pursuant to
shall be regulated by the Commission pursuant to Article        Article 29.
29 within the framework of the formalities referred to in
paragraph 2 (b).                                                                         Article 10
                                                                1.    Member States shall take the measures necessary to
4.     The INTRASTAT system shall apply:                        compile a register in which they shall list up to 31
                                                                December 1992 upon dispatch the consignors, upon
(a) to the statistics of trade between Member States,           arrival the consignees and where necessary the
     pursuant to Articles 17 to 27;                             declarants, within the meaning of Commission Regu-
                                                                lation (EEC) No 2792/86 ('), who are involved from
(b) to transit and storage statistics, in accordance with       1 January 1991 to 31 December 1992 in trade between
     the provisions laid down by the Council on a               Member States, referred to hereinafter as intra-
     proposal from the Commission pursuant to Article           Community operators.
     30.
                                                                2.    The list of minimum data to be recorded in the
5.     Barring a decision to the contrary by the Council        register of intra-Community operators in addition to the
on a proposal from the Commission taken no later than           identification number referred to in paragraph 3 shall be
31 December 1991, in particular pursuant to Article 30,         laid down by the Commission pursuant to Article 29 by
the national provisions on the statistics referred to in        30 June 1990.
paragraph 4, in so far as they relate to data collection,
shall cease to apply after 31 December 1992.                    3.    The departments in the Member States responsible
                                                                for compiling statistics relating to the trading of goods
                                                                between Member States shall allocate to intra-
                          Article 8                             Community operators an identifying code number and
                                                                shall inform the operators of their code number in time
"Without prejudice to Article 5, the obligation to supply
                                                                for them to comply with the provisions of Article 13(1)
the information required by the INTRASTAT system shall
                                                                using this number.
be incumbent on any natural or legal person who is
involved in the trading of goods between Member States.         However, where intra-Community operators are liable to
                                                                account for VAT, the said departments shall use for the
Among those incurring this obligation, the party                purposes specified above, apart from exceptional cases
responsible for providing information for each form of          which they shall justify to the operators concerned, the
statistics covered by the INTRASTAT system shall be             identification numbers allocated to these operators by the
designated by the relevant specific provisions.                 national VAT authorities. The latter shall also furnish to
                                                                the abovementioned departments, on the basis of this
                                                                number, any information relating to the identification of
                          Article 9                             the said operators which may be necessary for the
1.     The party responsible for providing the information      compilation of the register of intra-Community
required by the INTRASTAT system may transfer the task          operators.
of providing the information to a third party residing in
a Member State, but such transfer will in no way reduce
the responsibility of the said party.                           (') OJ No L 263, 15. 9. 1986, p. 59.
 ---pagebreak--- 18. 2. 89                             Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 41/9
4.     Where required, the Commission shall draw up, in                                   Article 12
accordance with Article 29, the rules relating to the
management and updating of the register of intra-               The statistical information media required by the
Communky operators to be applied by the Member                   INTRASTAT system shall be set up by the Commission
States.                                                         pursuant to Article 29, in respect of each category of
                                                                statistics relating to the trading of goods between
                                                                 Member States.
                          Article 11
1.     The Member State's departments responsible for                                     Article 13
VAT collection shall, at least once every three months,
furnish the departments in that Member State responsible         1.     Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 2
for compiling statistics relating to the trading of goods       the statistical information required by the INTRASTAT
between Member States with:                                     system shall be supplied by the party responsible to the
                                                                competent national departments, within the time limits
                                                                set up by the Commission pursuant to Article 29.
(a) the list of those liable to account for VAT who, in
     the period under review, have declared that they
     have been charged VAT arising out of purchases in          2.      The party responsible is, on his request, authorized
     other Member States;                                       by these departments to transmit this information by
                                                                 means of 'global' declarations which combine the
                                                                movements of goods incurring obligations on his part
(b) the list of those liable to account for VAT who, in          under the INTRASTAT system during a specific period.
     the period under review, have declared that they
     have charged VAT following sales in other Member
     States.                                                     3.     The Member States shall inform the Commission of
                                                                 the conditions laid down by them under which the auth-
                                                                 orization requested in paragraph 2 will be granted.
2. - Under restricted conditions, which the Commission           Pursuant to Article 29 the Commission shall adopt such
shall determine pursuant to Article 29, the Member               provisions as it deems necessary in this connection.
States' departments responsible for VAT collection shall
in addition furnish the departments in their own Member
State responsible for compiling statistics relating to the       4.     The Commission      shall  determine,   pursuant   to
trading of goods between Member States, on their own             Article 29:
initiative or at the request of the latter, with any infor-
mation capable of improving the quality of statistics
which those liable to account for VAT normally submit            — where not laid down by this Regulation, the
to the first-mentioned departments to comply with tax                 reference period applicable to each category of stat-
requirements.                                                         istics relating to the trading of goods between
                                                                      Member States,
3.     "Whatever the administrative organization of the          — the procedures for the transmission of the infor-
Member State, the party responsible for providing stat-               mation, especially with a view to making available to
istical information can be compelled to justify the infor-            the parties responsible for providing information
mation he supplies in comparison with the data he                     networks of regional data collection offices.
communicates to the departments responsible for VAT
collection only within the limits laid down pursuant to
paragraph 2.                                                                              Article 14
                                                                 Any party responsible for providing statistical infor-
4.     In the instructions to persons liable to account for      mation who does not fulfil his obligations under this
VAT regarding the periodic declaration which such                Regulation shall be liable to the penalties which the
persons must address to them, the departments in a               Member States shall lay down in accordance with their
 Member State responsible for VAT collection shall draw          relevant national provisions.
 attention, according to the rules adopted by the
 Commission pursuant to Article 29, to the obligations
they may incur as parties responsible for providing the                                   Article 15
 information required by the INTRASTAT system.
                                                                 The Commission may organize, under conditions which
                                                                  it shall determine pursuant to Article 29, periodic surveys
 5.    Administrative     assistance   between      national      on the trading of goods between Member States by
 departments of different Member States responsible for           private individuals and on movements of goods or on
 compiling statistics relating to the trading of goods            intra-Community operators excluded from the returns
 between Member States shall, as necessary, be regulated          under specific provisions relating to the various statistics
 by the Commission pursuant to Article 29.                        on the trading of goods.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 41/10                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                    18. 2. 89
                            Article 16                              (a) as Community goods:
The Commission shall report to the Council on the func-                  (1) introduced without formalities onto its market;
tioning of the INTRASTAT system for each category of                     (2) released for consumption;
statistics relating to the trading of goods between                      (3) placed under inward processing arrangements of
Member States covered by the INTRASTAT system                                 a tax nature with a view to subsequent export;
within six months of the annual results for the second
year of operation of the said system being made available               (4) placed in premises under the control of the tax
to the Commission by the Member States.                                       authorities, under the conditions laid down in
                                                                              the second indent of Article 18 (2) (a) (2);
                            TITLE III                              (b) as non-Community goods, referred to in Article 18
                                                                        (2)(b):
         Statistics on trade between Member States                      (1) placed in free circulation there;
                                                                        (2) maintained under inward processing customs
                           Article 17
                                                                              arrangements or under arrangements               for
1.     Statistics on trade between Member States shall                        processing under customs control or again made
cover, on the one hand, movements of goods leaving the                        subject to such arrangements.
Member State of dispatch and, on the other, movements
of goods entering the Member State of arrival.
                                                                                              Article 20
2.     For the purposes of statistics on trade between             With a view to collecting the data required for the stat-
Member States, electric current shall be considered as             istics of trade between Member States, the provisions of
goods.                                                             Title II (INTRASTAT) shall be supplemented as follows:
                           Article 18                              (1) without prejudice to Article 33, the INTRASTAT
                                                                        system shall apply to the goods referred to in Article
1.     The Member State of dispatch shall be the Member                  18 (2) (a) (1) and Article 19 (a) (1);
State in which the goods leaving it are the subject of a
dispatch. Dispatch for the purposes of this Title shall be
taken to mean the shipment of goods referred to in
                                                                   (2) the partner countries in trading of goods between
paragraph 2 to a destination in another Member State.
                                                                        Member States within the meaning of Article 7 (1)
                                                                        shall be the Member State of dispatch and the
                                                                        Member State of arrival;
2.     In a given Member State the following may be the
subject of a dispatch:
                                                                   (3) within the INTRASTAT system Member State of
(a) Community goods:                                                    dispatch shall be defined as that in which the goods
     (1) which comply with the conditions of the market                 which are dispatched from there to another Member
          of that Member State;                                          State come under the terms of Article 18 (2) (a) (1),
                                                                         in so far as they have been produced there,
     (2) which do not comply with the conditions of the                  introduced without formalities onto its market or
          market of that Member State but:                               released for consumption;
          — have been produced there,
          — have been placed in premises under the
               control of the tax authorities, insofar as their    (4) within the INTRASTAT system Member State of
               case is provided for in the specific provisions           arrival shall be defined as that in which Community
               adopted by the Commission pursuant to                     goods from another Member State are introduced
               Article 29;                                              without formalities onto its market;
(b) non-Community goods placed, maintained or
                                                                    (5) the party responsible for providing the information
     obtained in that Member State under inward
                                                                         referred to in Article 8 shall be the natural or legal
     processing       customs     arrangements     or    under
                                                                         person who
     arrangements for processing under customs control.
                                                                         (a) residing in the Member State of dispatch:
                            Article 19                                        — has concluded the contract, with the
The Member State of arrival shall be the Member State                             exception of transport contracts, giving rise
in which the goods which enter it are:                                            to the dispatch of goods or, failing this,
 ---pagebreak--- 18 2 89                                  Cofficial]ournalof theLuropean Communities                                           ^oC^lBll
          — dispatches or provides for the dispatch of the                                             Blr^22
                goods or, failing this,
                                                                  1       COnthestatisticaldata medium, t h e ^ i e m b e r ^ t a t e s
          — is in possession of the goods which are the           shall be described by the alphabetical or numerical codes
                subject of the dispatch,                          which the Commission shall determine pursuant to
                                                                  Article 29
      d^ residing in the member ^tate of arrival
          — has concluded the contract, with the                  2       without prejudice t o t h e p r o v i s i o n s a d o p t e d b v the
                exception of transport contracts, giving rise     Commission pursuant to Article 29, the parties
                to the delivery of goods or,faihng this,          responsible for providing information shall comply, for
                                                                  thepurposes of paragraph 1, withthemstructionsissued
          — tal^espossessionor provides for possessions
                                                                  by the competent national departments regarding the
                betaken of the goods or,faihng this
                                                                  compilmgof statistics on tradebetween member states
          — is in possession of the goods which are the
                subject of the delivery,
                                                                                                       ^ r ^ 2 ^
                                                                  1       fhefollowingdatamustbegivenon                       thestatistical
^    the Commission shall adopt the provisions provided
                                                                  datamedium for each type of goods
     formArticleB^byl]anuaryl991,
                                                                  er^ m t h e ^ i e m b e r ^ t a t e of arrival t h e ^ d e m b e r ^ t a t e o f
CO the reference period referred to i n t h e first indent of           consignment of the goods, within the meaning of
     Article 13 C^ shall be the calendar month during                   Article2^CP4
     which the movements of goods to be recorded
      pursuant to this Article, as appropriate, commence or       d^d in the member ^tateof dispatch thelvlember ^tate
      are completed                                                     of destination within the meaning of A r t i c l e 2 ^ 2 ^ ,
                                                                  ^     the quantity of the                  goods, in    net     mass       and
                                                                        supplementary units,
                             ^tr^c^2^
1       COnthestatisticaldata medium                              ^     the value of the goods,
                                                                  ^     where appropriate, the statistical system
—     goodsshallbedesignatedmsuchawayastopermit
     easy and precise classification in the finest relevant       f h e list of these data shall be amended by the
     subdivision of the classification of goods applicable to     Commission pursuant to Article 29, and this by 1
     the statistics of trade between member states,               January 1991if it needs to be supplemented, especially in
                                                                  accordance with Article ^ C^, ^ diat it can become
— the code of the corresponding subdivision in the                apphcablefrom 1 January 1993
     classification shall also be given for each type of
     goods                                                        2       ^Phe member states may not prescribe that data
                                                                  other than those referred to in paragraph 1 must be
                                                                  given on the statistical data medium Plowever, without
2       ^PheCommissionshall, n o l a t e r t h a n 31 December    prejudice to Article 25 ^ , until 31 December 1998 at
1990, adopt a Regulation pursuant to Article 29 estab             thelatest,this measure will not apply to suchdata as the
hshmg the classification referred to in paragraph 1 and           Commission shall list in accordance with Article 29
laying down the rules under whichthe classification shall
b e m a n a g e d b y theCommission and published annually        Con a proposal from the Commission, the Council shall
H i e Commission shall anne^ to this Regulation the               gradually reduce the number of these items of data
versionof thesaidclassificationapphcableon 1 January
 1993, subject however to any amendments resulting from
                                                                   3       In so far as not laid down in this Regulation, the
the management of goods nomenclatures which are
                                                                  data referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 and the rules
adoptednot later than 31 Coctober 1992
                                                                   governing their mclusiononthestatisticaldata medium,
                                                                   shall be defined by the Commission pursuant to Article
3       ^Phe classification referred to in paragraphs 1 a n d 2    29
shall be compatible with the nomenclature of the
Plarmom^ed Commodity Description and Coding                                                             ^r^c2^
system
                                                                   1       ^ h e n , before reaching the member ^tate of arrival,
                                                                   g o o d s h a v e e n t e r e d o n e o r morecountnes intransitand
^       notwithstanding paragraph 1, the party responsible         have been subject in those countries to halts or legal
for providing information may use, for the purpose of              operations not inherent in their transport, the member
 describing and coding goods, the goods classification             ^tate of consignment shall be tal^en to be the last
 applicable toCommumtye^ternaltradestatistics                      Alember ^tate where such halts or legal operations
 ---pagebreak--- No C 41/12                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                18. 2. 89
occurred. In other cases, the Member State of                   2.    Where necessary the procedure for such trans-
consignment shall be the same as the Member State of            mission shall be laid down by the Commission pursuant
dispatch.                                                       to Article 29.
2.    Member State of destination shall be taken to mean        3.     Data declared confidential by the Member States
the last country to which it is known, at the time of           under the conditions referred to in Article 31 shall be
dispatch, that the goods are to be dispatched.                  transmitted by them in accordance with Council Regu-
                                                                lation (EEC) No . . . of . . . on the transmission to the
                                                                Statistical Office of the European Communities of infor-
3.    Notwithstanding Article 23 (1) (a), the party             mation covered by statistical confidentiality.
responsible for providing information in the Member
State of arrival may, in the following order:
                                                                                         Article 27
— if he does not know the Member State                   of     Provisions regard the simplification of statistical infor-
    consignment, state the Member State of dispatch;            mation shall be adopted:
— if he does not know the Member State of dispatch,             (a) by the Council on a proposal from the Commission;
    state the Member State of purchase, within the
                                                                (b) by the Commission pursuant to Article 29; in this
    meaning of paragraph 4;
                                                                     case, they cannot apply before 1 January 1999.
— if there is no country of purchase, state 'Member
    State unknown'.                                                                      TITLE IV
                                                                Committee on statistics relating to the trading of goods
4.    The Member State of purchase shall be taken to                              between Member States
mean the Member State of residence of the contracting
partner of the natural or legal person who has concluded
                                                                                         Article 28
the contract, with the exception of transport contracts,
giving rise to the delivery of goods in the Member State        1.    A Committee on the Statistics relating to the
of arrival.                                                     trading of goods between Member States, hereinafter
                                                                called the Committee, is hereby established. It shall be
                                                                composed of representatives of the Member States and
                         Article 25                             chaired by a Commission representative.
1.    The Community and the Member States shall
compile statistics on trade between Member States from          2.    The Committee       shall  draw   up   its rules   of
the data referred to in Article 23 (1).                         procedure.
                                                                3.    The Committee may examine any question relating
2.    Member States which do not compile statistics on
                                                                to the implementation of this Regulation raised by its
trade between Member States from the data referred to           Chairman, either on his own initiative or at the request
in Article 23 (2) shall refrain from ordering the               of the representative of a Member State.
collection of such data.
                                                                                         Article 29
3.    The Community and the Member States shall
compile the statistics on trade between Member States,          1.    The provisions required for the implementation of
having regard to such provisions as the Commission may          this Regulation shall be adopted according to the
adopt pursuant to Article 29 on general and specific            procedure laid down in paragraph 2.
exemptions and the statistical threshold.
                                                                2.    The Commission representative shall submit to the
4.    Any provision which has the effect of excluding           Committee a proposal on the measures to be taken. The
goods referred to in Articles 18 and 19 from the compi-         Committee shall deliver an opinion on the proposal
lation of the statistics of trade between Member States         within a period set by the Chairman in accordance with
shall suspend the obligation to supply statistical infor-       the urgency of the matter in question, if necessary by
mation on the goods thus excluded.                              means of a vote.
                                                                The opinion shall be entered in the minutes; in addition,
                         Article 26                             each Member State shall have the right to request that its
                                                                position appear in the minutes.
1.    Member States shall transmit to the Commission
without delay, and at the latest six weeks after the end of     The Commission shall take the fullest account of the
the reference month, the monthly statisics on trade             opinion delivered by the Committee. It shall inform the
between Member States. These statistics shall cover the         Committee of the way in which it has taken the opinion
data referred to in Article 23 (1).                             into account.
 ---pagebreak--- 18. 2. 89                              Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 41/13
                         TITLE V                                                           Article 33
                      Final provisions                           In respect both of goods subject to the INTRASTAT
                                                                 system and of others goods, the Commission may, for
                         Article 30                              the purpose of facilitating the task of the parties
                                                                 responsible for providing information, establish in
On a proposal from the Commission, the Council shall              accordance with Article 29 simplified data collection
adopt the provisions necessary to enable the Community           procedures and in particular create the conditions for
or its Member States to compile the statistics other than         increased use of automatic data processing and electronic
statistics of trade between Member States referred to in         data transmission.
Article 4.
                                                                                           Article 34
                         Article 31                               1.    Regulation (EEC) No 2954/85 is hereby repealed
                                                                 with effect from 1 January 1993 and Regulation (EEC)
1.     On a proposal from the Commission, the Council
                                                                  No 1736/75 shall cease to apply to the statistics of trade
shall decide on the conditions under which the Member
                                                                  in goods between Member States to which it was
States may declare data compiled in accordance with this
                                                                  applicable, with effect from the same date.
Regulation, or the Regulations provided for herein, to be
confidential.                                                     2.    This Regulation shall enter into force on the third
                                                                  day following that of its publication in the Official
2.     Until these conditions have been laid down,               Journal of the European Communities.
Member States' provisions on this matter shall apply.
                                                                  Except in so far as they imply that the Council or the
                                                                  Commission shall adopt provisions implementing this
                         Article 32                               Regulation before that date, Articles 1 to 9, 11, 13 (1),
                                                                   14 to 20, 21 (1) and (4) and 22 to 27 shall not be
The Commission may, pursuant to Article 29, adopt                 applicable until 1 January 1993.
measures which adapt those provided for in this Regu-
lation to specific movements of goods within the                  This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
meaning of the statistical regulations of the Community.          directly applicable in all Member States.