Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2006)66 - Structural business statistics - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2006)66 - Structural business statistics. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2006)66  |
| date | 20-02-2006 |
Grounds for and objectives of the proposalIn order to respond to increased need for statistical data to underpin policy making and monitoring, the proposed regulation improves the current regulation by increasing coverage of service activities, by adding annexes on Business Demography and Business Services and by introducing a new tool to respond to emerging user needs. Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No. 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics, which is the common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community, has been amended four times. Since further amendments are to be made, it should be recast in the interests of clarity. The recast regulation aims to continue with the existing statistical support for decisions in current policy areas and to satisfy the additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives, and from the ongoing review of statistical priorities and the necessity of the statistics produced – all this with a view to making best use of available resources and minimising response burden.Wherever possible, the recast regulation proposes simplifications and alleviation of burden to balance the new requirements. In the frame of the discussion of the Annual Work Programme 2005 in their 53rd and 54th meetings, the Statistical Programme Committee welcomed the effort made by Eurostat to define negative priorities and stressed that this process should be improved. In line with the statistical programme for the Commission 2005 the recast combines new with negative priorities.
General contextStatistical data regarding services is missing for many services activities at the detailed activity level, especially within business services as this sector is very heterogeneous. For example, in Council Regulation No 58/97, manufacturing industry is covered by 241 distinct activities compared to 32 for market services. The proposal put forward concerned inter alia the adaptation of existing Regulations to put services on equal footing with manufacturing and the necessity to consider new approaches to data collection.In order to be able to give substantial policy recommendations for the support of entrepreneurship, harmonised data on business demography, i.e. data on enterprise births, survivals and deaths and their respective impact on employment are required. A flexible tool is needed enabling timely response to newly emerging statistical needs due to changing economic or technical conditions. Currently there is no legal text setting up a common framework for the systematic production of statistics on business services, business demography and ad hoc data collection.
Existing provisions in the area of the proposalCouncil Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics (OJ L 14, 17.1.1997, p.
1). This regulation has been amended substantively by Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 410/98 of 16 February 1998 (OJ L 52, 21.2.1998, p.
1), Commission Regulation (EC) No 1614/2002 of 6 September 2002 (OJ L 244, 12.9.2002, p.
7), Regulation (EC) No 2056/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 November 2002, (OJ L 317, 21.11.2002, p.
1), Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 September 2003, (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p.
1). This proposal for a regulation replaces Council Regulation No 58/97 and its amendments and proposes new amendments. A comprehensive revision of the NACE nomenclature is in preparation. It was discussed whether the SBS Regulation recast could foresee any mention of the future NACE version as regards the numerous references to its earlier version. For practical reasons, this was ruled out and the NACE revision will in any case have to ensure that all prior references to its earlier versions are transposed.
Consistency with other policies and objectives of the UnionUp-to-date statistics can substantially support key policy priorities such as the process set in place by the Lisbon European Council meeting in March 2000. The Council meeting in March 2001 in Stockholm subsequently stated that "the creation of an effectively functioning internal market in services is one of Europe's highest priorities". Statistical data is essential to better understand the real forces behind competitiveness and for giving guidance to decision making by business operators, policymakers and other stakeholders and for monitoring of progress in the implementation of policy areas as described in the Commission Communication to the Council on the competitiveness of business-related services and their contribution to the performance of European enterprises.By its Decision 2000/819/EC of 20 December 2000 the Council adopted the Multi-Annual Programme enterprise and entrepreneurship, and in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises, with a view to making progress towards the objective set out by the European Charter for Small Enterprises. This programme calls for indicators measuring successful entrepreneurship. In addition, the Commission has, on 6 April 2005, adopted a proposal for a new Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme 2007-2013 (COM (2005) 0121 final). Data on business demography are an element of the Structural Indicators monitoring the goals set by the Lisbon Strategy. Furthermore, the Green Paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe, followed by the Entrepreneurship Action Plan, of the Commission calls for a benchmarking of national policies as regards the fostering of entrepreneurship as a source of employment.
Consultation of interested parties
Consultation methods, main sectors targeted and general profile of respondentsThe Statistical Program Committee approved the strategy for the services statistics by September 2002. The need for a clearly prioritised approach within the area of services statistics was underlined as well as the need to identify negative priorities in other fields in order to be able to comply with the requests for new statistics in the area of services and to balance this by a reduction of the response burden in other sectors. The corresponding working groups, under the supervision of the Business Statistics Directors Group, which approved the action plan, were mandated to continue with the development of the proposal.The proposed recast version was drafted based on the outcome of pilot studies, written consultations of both data providers and user Directorates-Generals and consultation of the responsible working groups (business services and business demography), of the Structural Business Statistics Steering Group (meeting in November 2003, April and November 2004) and the Business Statistics Directors Group (meeting in October 2004) and of concerned Commission Directorates-Generals.
Summary of responses and how they have been taken into accountThe need for a revision of the Regulation on structural business statistics was acknowledged by all consulted groups. One component is the extension for services. All data is requested to be delivered on 4-digit level of the NACE REV. 1.1 in order to allow for a finer analysis of the services sector, especially computer and business services (Annex I, section 9). A new Annex on business services (Annex VIII) is added to the regulation to provide data on turnover broken down by product type and by residence of clients in order to gain further knowledge on business services and the functioning of the internal market in this area. Annex VIII is in general supported by Member States.A new Annex on business demography (Annex IX) has been introduced to the regulation to provide data on business demography, i.e. on enterprise births and deaths as well as the survival of newly born enterprises and the related employment effects. Annex IX found overall agreement by the Member States. An ad hoc module for the flexible conduct of surveys in response to newly emerging statistical needs has been introduced. Some Member States raised concerns about the module and asked for the possibility for co-financing from the Commission for the carrying out of ad hoc data collections.Variables especially related to gross operating surplus and labour input are moved from the sector specific annexes of the regulation (Annexes II-IV) to the common module (Annex I) to increase the availability of data in the services sector. The extension of the common module to NACE division 90 (Sewage and refuse disposal, sanitation and similar activities) and groups 92.1 (Motion picture and video activities) and 92.2 (Radio and television activities) and the planned pilot studies for sections M (Education), N (Health and social work) and O (Other community, social and personal service activities) found support in general, however, data for non-market activities were seen as difficult to collect. In order to fulfil the requirement to, wherever possible, simplify and reduce the burden, the following variables have been deleted in agreement with data providers and users:- Research and development,- Purchases of energy products from Annexes II and IV,- Trading by enterprises from Annex III,- Value of tangible goods acquired through financial leasing from Annexes II to IV, - All optional variables.- All variables that are either surveyed in the framework of another regulation or where data availability or quality was poor and user needs were limited.As the quality of the data was seen as possibly too low by some Member States, paragraph 4 has been added to article 6 of the main body of the regulation in order to allow for delivery of data flagged for low accuracy in specific cases. The breakdown of turnover by type of activity has been made multi-annual (Annexes II-IV), whilst turnover from the principal is kept annual. The variables were seen by Member States as too detailed to be collected annually with high quality.
There was no need for external expertise.
Impact assessmentThe information required by this Regulation can be needed for drawing up, monitoring and evaluating Community policies, in particular concerning the internal market as well as enterprise, economic, financial, employment and information society. The additional information can contribute to improved policies making and monitoring including those measures aimed at sustainable development. It will also enable monitoring of business demography and its employment and social effects.The information that will become available via this Regulation will help businesses in investment decisions and will assist enterprises to benchmark their operation against the industry average. The regulation may therefore help to promote the competitiveness of businesses. Together with the improvement of policies, the economic impact will be positive.
Contents
Summary of the proposed actionThe codified and recast regulation will be the extended framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community. New economic, competition, social, environmental and enterprise policies and guidelines call for initiatives and decisions based on valid statistics. The information provided for under existing Regulation on structural business statistics or under any other Community legislation or available in Member States is insufficient, inadequate or insufficiently comparable to serve as a reliable basis for the work of the Commission.
Legal basisTreaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285 i thereof.
Subsidiarity principleThe subsidiarity principle applies insofar as the proposal does not fall under the exclusive competence of the Community.
The objectives of the proposal cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States for the following reason(s).
Community legislation of structural business statistics is needed to set common statistical standards for data, with a high degree of comparability between data collected in different Member States. Such comparability is requested by all users, not only at Community level, but also within Member States. The regulation defines a set of relevant statistical data, together with the most important definitions needed to ensure the comparability of the statistics. This is essential, for the calculation of EU aggregates, which are in great demand by users. The likely impact of a continuation of the existing situation can be the lack of information needed by the users. In order to carry out the tasks entrusted to it under the Treaties, especially with regard to the internal market, the Commission must have an adequate, meaningful, up-to-date, reliable and comparable structural business statistics.
Without the Regulation Member States would suffer from the lack of harmonised structural business statistics across the EU and would damage significantly their own interests. This regulation provides the basis for data needed for Policy formulation. Businesses and their professional associations need such information in order to understand their markets and to compare their activity and performance with those of their competitors, at regional, national and international level.
Community action will better achieve the objectives of the proposal for the following reason(s).
The best method of ascertaining the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of enterprises in the community consists in compiling statistics in accordance with common methodological principals and common definitions of characteristics. It is only from coordinated compilation that harmonised statistics can be drawn up with reliability and the level of detail required meeting the needs of the Commission and of enterprises.
EU aggregates can be calculated only at Community level on the basis of harmonised statistics.
The national statistics need to be co-ordinated and harmonised to provide European statistics. Only the European Union is in a position to do this.
The proposal therefore complies with the subsidiarity principle.
Proportionality principleThe proposal complies with the proportionality principle for the following reason(s).
The proposed regulation and all implementing regulations will be output measures, defining the statistical characteristics and the breakdown by activities to be provided, but leaving Member States full flexibility in how to obtain to data. It does not go beyond what is needed and it takes into account burden falling on the parties concerned to be minimised and proportionate. The proposed regulation does not prevent Member States from collecting other or more detailed statistics if they wish.
The recast regulation takes into account the continuation of existing statistical support for decision in current policy areas and the additional requirements from new Community policy initiatives, the need for ongoing review of statistical priorities and the necessity of the statistics to be produced. It aims at making best use of available resources and minimising response burden. Wherever possible, the recast regulation proposes simplifications and alleviation of burden in order to balance the new requirements.
Proposed instrument: Regulation.
Other means would not be adequate for the following reason(s).The requirements of the statistics in this regulation need direct and immediate execution in the Member States. They concern specifically identified statistical units in the Member States, the objective being clear and immediately applicable and the elements to be surveyed being specified in the act together with methodology, timing and periodicity. As such, therefore, they are not in general dependant on national measures for harmonisation, and national authorities, being concerned by the measures, simply have to apply them.
The costs of the mandatory data collection in Member States are borne by countries. For pilot studies co-financing would be necessary to test the feasibility of the collection of the data requested by our main users but difficult to collect. The Commission contribution will, following a call for proposals, take the form of grants awarded on the basis of grant applications submitted by Member States in advance, which will include estimated cost statement. According to Article 2 of Council Regulation (CE) No 322/97 on Community Statistics national authorities shall mean national statistical institutes and other bodies responsible in each Member States for producing Community statistics. Commitments of 4.950 € million have been foreseen for the year 2007-2009 to co-finance pilot studies.No technical and administrative assistance and support expenditure is foreseen. Existing human resources will be reallocated for the management and the needs of the programme, no other sources are necessary. Work by Eurostat to develop and document the Community methodology and to process, analyse and disseminate data will be covered in full. Additional costs are expected to be marginal.
Simulation, pilot phase and transitory period
There was or there will be a simulation or a pilot phase for the proposal.
There was or there will be a transitory period for the proposal.
The proposal provides for simplification of legislation.
25 variables have been dropped from the regulation. The regulation has been reorganised to cover the necessary data needs and the structure of the different annexes has been made similar. Legal streamlining, especially as regards the use of implementing powers has been performed. The extent and use of Comitology has been comprehensively and exhaustively listed and cross-referenced throughout the text, whenever necessary to ensure clarity.
Repeal of existing legislationThe adoption of the proposal will lead to the repeal of existing legislation.
European Economic AreaThe proposed act concerns an EEA matter and should therefore extend to the European Economic Area.
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58/97 recast (adapted)