Article 1 Subject matter
This Regulation establishes common rules for the production of European statistics concerning inland waterways transport.
Article 2 Scope
1. Member States shall transmit data relating to inland waterways transport on their national territory to the Commission (Eurostat). 2. Member States in which the total volume of goods transported annually by inland waterways as national, international or transit transport exceeds 1 000 000 tonnes shall supply the data referred to in Article 4(1). 3. By way of derogation from paragraph 2, Member States which do not have international or transit inland waterways transport but in which the total volume of goods transported annually by inland waterways as national transport exceeds 1 000 000 tonnes shall supply only the data required under Article 4(2). 4. This Regulation shall not apply to: (a) the carriage of goods by vessels of less than 50 deadweight tonnes; (b) vessels used principally for the carriage of passengers; (c) vessels used for ferrying purposes; (d) vessels used solely for non-commercial purposes by port administrations and public authorities; (e) vessels used solely for bunkering or storage; (f) vessels not used for the carriage of goods such as fishery vessels, dredgers, floating workshops, houseboats and pleasure craft. 5. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 10 concerning the amendment of paragraph 2 of this Article in order to raise the threshold for statistical coverage of inland waterways transport referred to therein so as to take economic and technical trends into account. When exercising that power, the Commission shall ensure that the delegated acts do not impose a significant additional burden on the Member States or on the respondents. Furthermore, the Commission shall duly justify the statistical actions for which those delegated acts provide, using, where appropriate, a cost-effectiveness analysis, including an assessment of the burden on respondents and of the production costs as referred to in Article 14(3)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.
Article 3 Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply: (a) ‘navigable inland waterway’ means a watercourse, not part of the sea, which by natural or man-made features is suitable for navigation, primarily by inland waterway vessels; (b) ‘inland waterway vessel’ means a floating craft designed for the carriage of goods or public transport of passengers which navigates predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply; (c) ‘nationality of the vessel’ means the country where the vessel is registered; (d) ‘inland waterways transport’ means any movement of goods and/or passengers using inland waterways vessels which is undertaken wholly or partly in navigable inland waterways; (e) ‘national inland waterways transport’ means inland waterways transport between two ports of a national territory irrespective of the nationality of the vessel; (f) ‘international inland waterways transport’ means inland waterways transport between two ports located in different national territories; (g) ‘transit inland waterways transport’ means inland waterways transport through a national territory between two ports both located in another national territory or national territories provided that in the total journey within the national territory there is no transshipment; (h) ‘inland waterways traffic’ means any movement of a vessel on a given navigable inland waterway. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 10 concerning the amendment of the first paragraph of this Article to adapt the definitions contained therein or to provide for new ones in order to take relevant definitions amended or adopted at international level into account. When exercising that power, the Commission shall ensure that the delegated acts do not impose a significant additional burden on the Member States or on the respondents. Furthermore, the Commission shall duly justify the statistical actions for which those delegated acts provide, using, where appropriate, a cost-effectiveness analysis, including an assessment of the burden on respondents and of the production costs as referred to in Article 14(3)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.
Article 4 Data collection
1. Data shall be collected in accordance with the tables set out in Annexes I to IV. 2. In the case referred to in Article 2(3), data shall be collected in accordance with the table set out in Annex V. 3. For the purposes of this Regulation, goods shall be classified in accordance with Annex VI. 4. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 10 concerning the amendment of the Annexes to reflect changes in coding and nomenclature at international level or in the relevant Union legislative acts. When exercising that power, the Commission shall ensure that the delegated acts do not impose a significant additional burden on the Member States or on the respondents. Furthermore, the Commission shall duly justify the statistical actions for which those delegated acts provide, using, where appropriate, a cost-effectiveness analysis, including an assessment of the burden on respondents and of the production costs as referred to in Article 14(3)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.
Article 5 Pilot studies
1. By 8 December 2018, the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, shall develop the appropriate methodology for compiling statistics on passenger transport by inland waterways, including by cross-border transport services. 2. By 8 December 2019, the Commission shall launch voluntary pilot studies to be carried out by Member States that provide data within the scope of this Regulation on the availability of statistical data relating to passenger transport by inland waterways, including by cross-border transport services. Those pilot studies shall aim to assess the feasibility of those new data collections, the costs of the related data collections and the statistical quality implied. 3. By 8 December 2020, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the results of such pilot studies. Depending on the results of that report, and within a reasonable period, the Commission shall submit, if appropriate, a legislative proposal to the European Parliament and to the Council to amend this Regulation with regard to statistics on passenger transport by inland waterways, including by cross-border transport services. 4. The general budget of the Union shall, where appropriate and taking into account the Union's added value, contribute to the financing of those pilot studies.
Article 6 Transmission of data
1. The transmission of data shall take place as soon as possible and no later than five months after the end of the relevant period of observation. 2. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down the arrangements for transmitting data to the Commission (Eurostat), including data interchange standards. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 11(2).
Article 7 Dissemination
European statistics based on the data referred to in Article 4 shall be disseminated with a frequency similar to that laid down for the transmission of data by the Member States. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down the arrangements for disseminating results. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 11(2).
Article 8 Quality of data
1. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down the methodological requirements and criteria designed to ensure the quality of the data produced. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 11(2). 2. Member States shall take all measures necessary to ensure the quality of the data transmitted. 3. The Commission (Eurostat) shall assess the quality of the data transmitted. Member States shall supply the Commission (Eurostat) with a report containing such information and data as it may request in order to verify the quality of the data transmitted. 4. For the purposes of this Regulation, the quality criteria to be applied to the data to be transmitted are those referred to in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. 5. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down the detailed arrangements, structure, periodicity and comparability elements for the quality reports. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 11(2).
Article 9 Reports on implementation
By 31 December 2020 and every five years thereafter, the Commission, after consulting the European Statistical System Committee, shall submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of this Regulation and on future developments. In that report, the Commission shall take relevant information provided by Member States on potential improvements and on users' needs into account. In particular, that report shall assess: (a) the benefits accruing to the Union, the Member States and the providers and users of statistical information, of the statistics produced, in relation to their costs; (b) the quality of the data transmitted and the data collection methods used.
Article 10 Exercise of the delegation
1. The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article. 2. The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article 2(5), Article 3 and Article 4(4) shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from 7 December 2016. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period. 3. The delegation of power referred to in Article 2(5), Article 3 and Article 4(4) may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force. 4. Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. 5. As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council. 6. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article 2(5), Article 3 or Article 4(4) shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by two months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.
Article 11 Committee procedure
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the European Statistical System Committee established by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. 2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.
Article 12 Repeal
Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 is hereby repealed. References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex VIII.
Article 13 Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .