The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted the report by Irene TINAGLI (S&D, IT) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 and repealing 11 legal acts in the field of National Accounts.
The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:
Objective
The objective of the proposal is to create common statistical standards that allow the production of harmonised national accounts data, for the sake of overall consistency.
Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which established the revised European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), contains the reference framework for common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules to enable the compilation of Member States' accounts for the statistical requirements of the Union, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States.
The proposed regulation would (i) amend the references to the classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) in Annex A to take account of the 2018 update of COICOP and (ii) update the transmission programme of national accounts data and related metadata (set out in Annex B) should be updated to take into account changing user needs, NextGenerationEU, and new policy priorities, and the development of new economic activities in the Union.
The amended text stressed that periodic updates are needed to take into account the interaction between globalisation, the green and digital transitions and national accounts in order to provide decision-makers with the necessary data and knowledge in order to ensure competitiveness, financial stability, budgetary resilience, sound public finances and fair tax policy.
NextGenerationEU
In the context of launching initiatives such as NextGenerationEU, the statistical accounts of the EU institutions and bodies should be properly reflected in EU statistics. Technical work should be pursued for that purpose, so that a robust methodology is developed allowing for the compilation and dissemination of those accounts by the Commission (Eurostat) with regular reports on the progress made, in particular to the Council and the European Parliament.
Eurostat should make relevant information on Union institutions and bodies available as soon as possible, including information on deficit and debt.
Revision of the system of national accounts in 2025
The revision will provide an opportunity to update the internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules in order to address global challenges related to climate change, security, inequality, sustainability and well-being and will be instrumental in supporting policymakers in taking informed decisions to foster economic, social and territorial cohesion, reduce social and gender inequalities and catalyse the green and digital transitions.
The Commission should therefore consult the European Parliament on the Union position with regard to the revision of the international System of National Accounts before its conclusion in 2025.
Review clause
By 1 January 2024 at the latest, the Commission should assess the inclusion of the accounts of the Union institutions and bodies and present, if appropriate, a legislative proposal to that effect.
Lastly, it is planned to repeal 11 legal acts relating to the previous European System of Accounts (ESA 1995), as these acts are no longer relevant.