Document ID: 32002D2367

Decision No 2367/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 16 December 2002
on the Community statistical programme 2003 to 2007
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(2),
Following consultation of the Committee of the Regions,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(3),
Whereas:
(1) In accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community statistics(4), a Community statistical programme should be established.
(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 establishes the principles for the production of Community statistics and applies to this Decision.
(3) Economic and monetary union is imposing substantial demands on the supply of monetary, balance of payments and financial statistics for the Community.
(4) In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97, the Community must have timely access to statistical information comparable between the Member States which is up to date, reliable, pertinent and produced as efficiently as possible for the formulation, application, monitoring and assessment of its policies.
(5) The availability of up-to-date comparable statistics of good quality is often a necessary condition for implementing Community policies.
(6) In order to ensure the consistency and comparability of statistical information in the Community, there is a need to establish a five-year Community statistical programme which identifies the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged in respect of these priorities.
(7) To this effect, the Community authorities should ensure comparable and high quality statistics.
(8) The specific method of drawing up Community statistics requires particularly close cooperation within a developing Community statistical system via the Statistical Programme Committee, set up by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom(5), as regards the adaptation of the system, notably via the introduction of legal instruments necessary to establish the said Community statistics. Account is to be taken of the burden on respondents, be they business, households or individuals.
(9) The production of Community statistics within the legislative framework of the five-year programme is the responsibility of the national authorities at national level and of the Community authority (Eurostat) at Community level.
(10) In order to achieve this objective, close, coordinated and coherent cooperation between Eurostat and the national authorities is necessary.
(11) To this effect, Eurostat should ensure the coordination under various forms of the national authorities in a network representing the European Statistical System (ESS) to assure the timely provision of statistics in support of European Union policy needs.
(12) Detailed implementing measures for individual statistical actions may be entrusted to the ESS by the Commission, which should decide the objectives and the measures concerned.
(13) In addition, in the implementation of this Programme, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97, the Commission is entrusted to execute certain implementing or execution tasks as they are defined in acts concerning individual statistical actions.
(14) Consideration may be given as to whether certain of these tasks currently performed at Commission level could be executed, for example, by a specialised implementing body.
(15) In certain areas covered by various Community policies a breakdown of data by gender is important.
(16) This Decision lays down, for the entire duration of the programme, a financial framework constituting the prime reference within the meaning of point 33 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure(6), for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure.
(17) The guidelines for establishing this programme have been submitted in accordance with Article 3(1) of Regulation (EC) No 322/97 to the Statistical Programme Committee, the European Advisory Committee on Statistical Information in the Economic and Social Spheres set up by Council Decision 91/116/EEC(7) and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payment Statistics set up by Council Decision 91/115/EEC(8),
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
Establishment of the statistical programme
The Community statistical programme for the period from 2003 to 2007 (hereinafter referred to as the programme) is hereby established. The programme is included in the Annexes.
Annex I defines the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged during that period and also provides a summary of statistical requirements viewed from the perspective of the policy needs of the European Union. These needs are broken down by titles of the Treaty.
Annex II provides a summary of the Eurostat work themes.
Article 2
Objectives and policy priorities
Taking account of the available resources of the national authorities and the Commission, this programme shall be guided by the principal Community policy priorities of:
- economic and monetary union,
- European Union enlargement,
- competitivity, sustainable development and the social agenda.
It shall also ensure the continuation of existing statistical support for decisions in current policy areas and the additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives. It shall take account of the need for ongoing review of statistical priorities and of the necessity of the statistics produced, with a view to making best use of available resources and minimising response burdens.
Furthermore, the Commission shall ensure comparable and high quality statistics.
Article 3
Financing
The financial framework for the implementation of this programme for the period 2003 to 2007 is hereby set at EUR 192500000.
EUR 150727000 shall be for the period 2003 to 2006. EUR 41773000 shall be for 2007. The amount of EUR 41773000 shall be deemed to be confirmed if it is consistent with the financial perspective in force for the period commencing in 2007.
The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial perspectives.
Article 4
Reports
During the third year of implementation of the programme, the Commission shall prepare an intermediate report showing its stage of development and present it to the Statistical Programme Committee.
At the end of the period covered by the programme, the Commission, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee, shall present an appropriate evaluation report on the implementation of the programme, taking into account the views of independent experts. That report is to be completed by the end of 2008 and subsequently submitted to the European Parliament and the Council.
Article 5
Entry into force
This Decision shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
Article 6
Addressees
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
Done at Brussels, 16 December 2002.

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