The European Parliament adopted amendments to the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics on demography. The matter was referred back to the committee responsible for reexamination. The vote on the legislative resolution is postponed until a later plenary session.
The main amendments adopted in plenary are as follows:
Parliament adds a recital citing the strategic objective of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) which provides a reference framework for the generation and dissemination of gender-disaggregated data and information, for planning and policy evaluation reasons.
Definitions: Parliament clarifies the definitions in Article 2 of the proposal:
Parliament adds a new subparagraph stipulating that the "usually resident population" shall be estimated from the legal or registered population, using scientifically-based, well-documented, and publicly-available statistical estimation methods that are monitored by the Commission (Eurostat).
Scope: the statistical data to be provided by Member States shall cover the following variables: age, sex and region of residence. Parliament also introduces into the text a specific mention of the role of other relevant national and regional authorities in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.
Data on population and vital events: Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data on vital events that occurred during the reference period. The data provided shall cover the following variables:
(a) live births by sex, by month of occurrence, by live birth-order, by mother’s age, by mother’s year of birth, by mother’s country of birth, by mother’s country of citizenship and by mother’s region of residence;
(b) deaths by age, by sex, by year of birth, by region of residence, by country of birth, by country of citizenship and by month of occurrence.
Because demographic change affects the regions in various, different ways, Parliament considers it would be helpful not only to compare developments at national level but also at regional level. Where regional authorities provide national authorities with statistical data, Member States shall forward such data to the Commission (Eurostat), in order to enable it to acquire a more detailed overview of the demographic situation in the Union.
As the regulation does not regulate the frequency of data, it needs to be ensured that the authorities are not forced to deliver data so frequently that is unrealistic or cannot reasonably be expected. The Commission shall therefore adopt implementing acts laying down uniform conditions for the breakdown of data, as well as to the frequency, deadlines and revisions of data. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure.
Reference time: Members clarify the reference time for population data. This shall be the end of the reference period (midnight on 31 December). The reference period for vital events data shall be the calendar year in which the events occurred. The first reference period to be taken into account for the purposes of this regulation shall be 2013. The last reference period shall be 2027.
Review clause: Parliament has inserted an amendment making provision for a review clause. The Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of the Regulation by 31 December 2018, and every five years thereafter. In that report, the Commission shall evaluate the quality of the data transmitted by Member States. The report shall, if appropriate, be accompanied by proposals designed to further improve the functioning of the Regulation.