Considerations on COM(2006)66 - Structural business statistics - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2006)66 - Structural business statistics. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2006)66  |
| date | March 11, 2008 |
| (2) | Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 established a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community. |
| (3) | Decision No 2367/2002/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 December 2002 on the Community statistical programme 2003 to 2007 (5) adopted the programme to be guided by the principal Community policy priorities of economic and monetary union, European Union enlargement and competitiveness, regional policy, sustainable development and the social agenda. Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises form an essential part of this programme. |
| (4) | This Regulation should provide for the continuation of 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 of the relevance of the statistics produced, with a view to making best use of available resources and minimising response burdens. Special attention should be paid to the impact on business caused by Community energy and environmental policies, such as those embodied by the REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (6). Cooperation and the exchange of best practices between national statistical institutes should be encouraged in order to ensure a more efficient use of administrative data sources. |
| (5) | There is an increasing need for data on services, in particular business services. Statistics are needed for the economic analysis and policy formulation on what is the most dynamic sector of modern economies, especially in terms of its potential for growth and employment creation. The Lisbon European Council meeting of 23 and 24 March 2000 highlighted the importance of services. The measurement of turnover broken down to detailed service products is a necessary prerequisite for a true understanding of the services’ role in the economy. The Stockholm European Council meeting of 23 and 24 March 2001 concluded that the creation of effectively functioning internal markets for services is one of Europe’s highest priorities. Statistics by detailed service products on cross-border trade are essential for monitoring the functioning of internal markets for services, evaluating the competitiveness of services and assessing the impact of barriers on trade in services. |
| (6) | There is a need for data on business demography, particularly since they are an element of the structural indicators established for monitoring the achievements concerning the goals set by the Lisbon Strategy. In addition, harmonised data on business demography and on its impact on employment are necessary to substantiate policy recommendations for the support of entrepreneurship. |
| (7) | There is also a need for a flexible tool within the statistical framework which can bring about a quick and timely response to emerging user needs resulting from the increasingly dynamic, innovative and complex characteristics of the knowledge-based economy. Linking such ad hoc data collections with the ongoing collection of data on structural business statistics would bring added value to the information gathered in both surveys and could reduce the total burden on respondents by avoiding the duplication of data collection. |
| (8) | It is necessary to provide for a procedure for the adoption of measures for the implementation of this Regulation in order to enable the rules for the collection and statistical processing of data and for the processing and transmission of the results to be clarified further. |
| (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, the Commission should be empowered to: update the list of characteristics in the Annexes; establish the frequency of the compilation of the statistics, the rules for flagging data as contributions to European totals only (CETO), the first reference year for the compilation of the results, and the breakdown of results, in particular the classifications to be used and the combination of the size classes; update the periods of time for the transmission of data; adapt the breakdown of activities and products to amendments or revisions of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) and classification of products by activity (CPA); adopt measures on the basis of the evaluation of pilot studies; change the lower limit for the reference population in Annex VIII; and establish criteria for the evaluation of quality. Since those measures are of general scope and are 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 provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC. |
| (11) | Since the objective of this Regulation, namely to provide harmonised data on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community, 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, |