Considerations on COM(2006)135 - Common rules for the provision of basic information on Purchasing Power Parities and for their calculation and dissemination

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dossier COM(2006)135 - Common rules for the provision of basic information on Purchasing Power Parities and for their calculation and dissemination.
document COM(2006)135 EN
date December 11, 2007
 
table>(1)In order to obtain a direct comparison of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in volume terms between Member States, it is essential for the Community to have Purchasing Power Parities (hereinafter referred to as ‘PPPs’) which eliminate the differences in the level of prices between Member States.
(2)The Community PPPs need to be produced in accordance with a harmonised methodology, consistent with Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (3) which lays down a framework for the construction of national accounts in the Member States.

(3)Member States are encouraged to produce data for regional PPPs.

(4)Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund (4) provides that the regions eligible for funding from the Structural Funds under the convergence objective are to be regions corresponding to level 2 of the common classification of territorial units for statistics within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (5). The GDP per capita of such regions, measured in PPPs and calculated on the basis of Community figures for the period 2000 to 2002, is less than 75 % of the average GDP of the EU-25 for the same reference period. In the absence of regional PPPs, national PPPs should serve to establish the list of regions which could benefit from the Structural Funds. National PPPs can also be used to determine the amount of funds to be allocated to each region.

(5)Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 provides that the Member States eligible for funding from the Cohesion Fund are to be those whose gross national income (GNI) per capita, measured in PPPs and calculated on the basis of Community figures for the period 2001 to 2003, is less than 90 % of the average GNI of the EU-25 and which have a programme for meeting the economic convergence conditions referred to in Article 104 of the Treaty.

(6)Article 1 of Annex XI to the Staff Regulations of officials of the European Communities, laid down in Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 of the Council (6) (hereinafter referred to as ‘Staff Regulations’) provides that, for the purposes of the review provided for in Article 65(1) of the Staff Regulations, the Commission (Eurostat) are to draw up every year before the end of October a report on changes in the cost of living in Brussels, the economic parities between Brussels and certain places in the Member States, and changes in the purchasing power of salaries in national civil services in central government.

(7)Every year the Commission (Eurostat) already collects basic information on PPPs from the Member States on a voluntary basis. This operation has become an established practice in the Member States. However, a legal framework is necessary to ensure the sustainable development, production and dissemination of PPPs.

(8)Provision of preliminary results on a regular basis, as is currently the practice, should be maintained in order to keep the most recent possible figures available.

(9)The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (7).

(10)In particular, power should be conferred on the Commission to adapt the definitions, to adjust the basic headings in Annex II and to define quality criteria. Since those measures are of general scope and designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny laid down in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

(11)Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the establishment of common rules for the provision of basic information on purchasing power parities and for their calculation and dissemination, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(12)The Statistical Programme Committee, established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (8), has been consulted in accordance with Article 3 of that Decision,