PURPOSE: to establish a common legal framework to ensure consistency across European business statistics and facilitate the integration of the corresponding statistical processes.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: the need for statistical information on businesses for policymaking and other purposes is growing. However, the current system for producing European business statistics is fragmented into separate domain-specific regulations which leads to inconsistencies in the data collected and inefficiencies in their production.
The draft Regulation on European business statistics, amending Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 and repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (FRIBS) is part of the Commission’s REFIT Programme. This programme seeks to simplify EU law and reduce unnecessary regulatory costs. It identified business statistics as one of its priority area.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT: the preferred option is the one which seeks to modernise the European business statistics in a single framework (FRIBS) using a mix of measures, including alternative options for the modernisation of Intrastat.
This option shall enable European business statistics to be put into one single legal framework FRIBS which will implicitly guarantee much higher consistency of business statistics.
CONTENT: the proposed Regulation establishes a common legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics related to the structure, the economic activities and the performance of businesses, as well as on the international transactions and research and development activities of the Union economy.
The proposal envisages the integration of statistical requirements and legal acts for business statistics by streamlining and simplifying them and reducing the burden on businesses. It is expected to deliver: better quality European Statistical System (ESS) business registers, common definitions to be used in all the statistical domains it covers, the exchange of identifiable micro-data and an integrated data structure.
The proposed Regulation covers the following issues:
BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: the financial impact of the proposal is of unlimited duration with a start-up period of 3 years, from 2019 to 2021. The total appropriations for 2019 and 2020 are estimated at EUR 46.453 million.
DELEGATED ACTS: the proposal contains provisions empowering the Commission to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.