The European Parliament adopted, by 664 votes to 13 with 6 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending the proposal for regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States. The report had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Eoin RYAN (UEN, IE), on behalf of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
The amendments are the result of an agreement between Parliament and Council.
The main amendments – adopted in 1st reading of the codecision procedure – are as follows :
- a new recital states that for long-term efficiency, other steps to reduce the statistical burden further, while maintaining statistics which meet the quality indicators and standards currently in force, should be considered. Such steps could include the further reduction of the compulsory minimum coverage rates of total dispatches and total arrivals, as well as the possible future introduction of a single flow system. For these purposes, the value, viability and the impact on quality of such steps should be further investigated by the Commission;
- Parliament defined in the text the parties responsible for providing the information for the Intrastat system;
- the thresholds below which parties are exempted from providing any Intrastat information shall be set at a level that ensures that the value of at least 97 % of the total dispatches and at least 95 % of the total arrivals of the relevant Member State's taxable persons is covered.
The Commission shall adapt those coverage rates to technical and economic developments, whenever it will be possible to reduce them while maintaining statistics which meet the quality indicators and standards in force. Those measures will be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny;
- on statistical confidentiality, Parliament stated that only where the parties who have provided information so request, shall the national authorities decide whether statistical results which make it possible to identify the said provider(s) are to be disseminated or are to be amended in such a way that their dissemination does not prejudice statistical confidentiality,
- Members laid down the quality assessment dimensions which will apply to the statistics to be transmitted. The Commission shall determine any measures necessary to ensure the quality of the data transmitted according to the quality assessment dimensions;
- Parliament also made amendments in the paragraph relating to the reporting on trade by business characteristics, bringing the regulation in line with developments in related legislation