Statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries: Commission delegated and implementing powers

PURPOSE: to align Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and the Council on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries to new rules under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  on delegated and implementing powers conferred on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2016/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries as regards conferring of delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures.

CONTENT: this Regulation aligns Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 with Articles 290 and 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. The implementing powers conferred on the Commission by that Regulation are replaced by the power to adopt delegated acts and implementing acts.

Delegated acts: the Commission has the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty with regard to:

• the adaptation of the list of customs procedures or customs-approved treatment or use;
• specific goods or movements and different or specific provisions applicable to them;
• the exclusion of goods or movements from external trade statistics;
• collection of certain data ;
• the further specification of the statistical data;
• the requirement for limited sets of data for the specific goods or movements referred to in the Regulation;
• the level of aggregation for partner countries, goods and currencies for statistics on trade by invoicing currency.

The power to adopt such acts is conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from 20 October 2016 (which may be tacitly extended for the same period).  The European Parliament or the Council may raise objections to a delegated act within three months of the date of notification of that act. That period may be extended by three months.

Implementing acts: in order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 471/2009, implementing powers are conferred on the Commission enabling it to adopt measures relating to:

• the codes and their format to be used in respect of the data referred to in Article 5(1) of that Regulation;
• the linking of the data on business characteristics with data recorded in accordance with that Article, and
• the uniform content and coverage of transmitted statistics.

Under the strategy for a new European Statistical System (ESS), the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC), established by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council will have an advisory role and assist the Commission in exercising its implementing powers. To that effect, Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 is amended by replacing the reference to the Extrastat Committee with a reference to the ESSC.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 20.10.2016.